Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: geoff@pmafire.UUCP (Geoff Allen) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: Halloween (really schools, church, and state) Message-ID:Date: 3 Oct 89 00:53:13 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: WINCO Computer Engineering, INEL, Idaho Lines: 33 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu In article pmd@cbnews.att.com (Paul M Dubuc) writes: >On to what is becoming a pet peeve concerning Halloween and the public >schools: It's not even October yet and they are starting up already. >My daughter's Kindergarten class is making haunted houses and ghost masks. >Around here the schools really over-do Halloween. Doing even half as >much for Christmas would be considered sectarian and offensive, a violation >of Church/State separation. When my wife was doing some student teaching around Easter (when schools are doing the bunny bit), she asked her supervisor what she was allowed to tell the kids concerning why we celebrate Easter. She was told that she could NOT tell the kids the origin of Easter. Even if the kids were to ASK why we celebrate Easter, she couldn't say, "We celebrate Easter as the day Jesus rose from the dead." She couldn't even discuss it as a historical issue. I guess she was supposed to give some answer about bunnies or something. I don't know. Why do people assume it makes sense to celebrate a holiday that you can't even legally explain? -- Geoff Allen \ Since we live by the Spirit, {uunet,bigtex}!pmafire!geoff \ let us keep in step with the Spirit. ucdavis!egg-id!pmafire!geoff \ -- Gal. 5:25 (NIV) [This sounds like somebody is being overly cautious. Their European history must be real interesting. "Well, during the 16th Cent. there was this major event that completely changed the basis of European civilization. But we're not allowed to tell you anything about it. And it was followed by a bunch of wars. But we can't tell you who was fighting, why, or how they were resolved." Presumably rather than talk about bunnies your wife should say "It is a Christian religious holiday. School policy does not permit me to tell you anything more." Or if even mentioning Christian is too much "School policy does not permit me to answer that question." --clh]