Did you know that Spring Break is “culturally insensitive”? I didn’t either–until this week’s Oshkosh School Board meeting. That meeting featured a workshop session on the 2018-2019 student calendar. The discussion eventually turned to Spring Break–which will be March 25th through the 29th next year.
Director of Learning Kim Brown led the discussion on choosing that date–as it does not match up with Easter–which is April 21st in 2019–for the first time in many years. Brown initially claimed that the move was due to state testing from April 22nd to the 26th. But then she added this:
“The other beautiful piece to this is that we realize that we have a very diverse community, and so we think this is a good thing to maybe have spring break at a different time than the traditional Easter”
So what Ms Brown is saying is that the District is committing a “micro-aggression” against non-Christians by having spring break follow Easter every year. Knowing kids, all they care about is that they don’t have to go to school for a week–and that joy likely far out-weighs the “insult” that comes with that time off following a major Christian holiday.
You will note that the time off is not called “Easter Break”. Public school districts went away from using the term “Christmas Break” years ago–and even ditched “Holiday Break” as well. Now it’s listed as just the “Winter Break”. But you will notice nobody is pushing for “Winter Break” to not take place around the Christian holiday of Christmas. Wouldn’t that be a “beautiful piece” in recognizing our diverse community if Oshkosh said “We are going to take ‘Winter Break’ from December 12th through the 16th this year!” Then they can recommend cultural sensitivity training for all of the parents that storm the next School Board meeting in vehement opposition to that change.
I also find it interesting that Oshkosh schools will not have classes on April 19th of 2019–Good Friday on the Christian calendar. How are we celebrating our “diversity” by giving kids off on the most somber of Christian holidays–but not on Rosh Hashanah or Yom Kippur, the Jewish High Holidays? And why don’t we not serve lunch during the days of Ramadan–when Muslims fast?
When it comes to “equal treatment” of religion in our public institutions, the options are “all or none”. I tend to lean toward “none” personally as it abides by the letter of the First Amendment. Plus, we give kids too much time off from school already–with early releases, random off-days every other month and the better part of three months doing nothing during the summer. Fewer family trips to Disney and those Mexican resorts would bolster the kids’ college funds too.
