It always made me so uncomfortable when I worked in French schools (teaching English) and the main teachers wanted me to do lessons about:
Hallowe'en and All Saints
“but without breaking the laïcité rules”. No matter how many times I tried to explain that “these are religious festivals, especially in the UK…” (with the exception of Hallowe'en, kiiiind of, but it still actually is) “…so I’m really not comfortable risking my job by talking about these to the children,” literally every single teacher still insisted I teach these topics, “just without mentioning the religious side of it! It’ll be OK, Christmas isn’t really religious!”
And there I was, struggling not to yell because:
I knew that if my friend Alli had been in the same job, and even suggested talking to the children about Ramadan, Eid, Hajj or anything, or worn hijab or her necklace with a name of Allah on it, she’d have lost her job…
I knew that if my friend Nicki had been in the same job, and taught the children about Pesach or Chanukah or Shabbos, or if she’d worn a Mogen David, she’d have lost her job…
I’m Catholic (not very traditional, but I am) and these festivals (except Hallowe'en) are very definitely religious. Cutting them off from their proper roots a) takes away the meaning of the festivals, and b) doesn’t change the fact that they are religious, and c) makes me extremely uncomfortable, because if you can appropriate these from a religion that does have a lot of privilege, what are you going to do to ones that don’t? I don’t trust you if you do this! And finally…
Even if we do take the Christianity away from Easter (and how do you even begin to do that??? And why would you want to???), it’s still inextricably linked to Pesach because Easter falls when it does because Maundy Thursday is the first night of Pesach!! Everything else that’s connected to Easter (Mother’s Day, Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday, Palm Sunday, Lent - everything!) falls when it does because it’s a certain number of days or weeks before Good Friday or Easter Sunday. Even explaining that, “No, Pancake Day isn’t always in February, who told you that?” requires an explanation of Lent, which by extension requires an explanation of Easter and Pesach.
No, I’m not comfortable teaching the children about these things! Sure, in theory, it’s nice for them to know when certain festivals are happening - but in a school where they’re not allowed to wish each other a Happy Chanukah or Ramadan Mubarak, I’m not going to teach them to sing Christmas Carols or make Easter cards!
It really is a case of “all or nothing”. And “nothing” doesn’t work when you’ve got hypocrisy so deeply ingrained in the curriculum.
blakekathryn
kaledo-art
annaxmalina
dededos
