note from Connie:
Muslims in New York City Unite on Push to Add Holidays to School Calendar
This is the sort of story you simply wouldn’t have seen in the Times or probably anywhere else even a decade or so ago.
And a question: How should the city determine which ethnic and religious groups should get holidays? Should the decision be based on the size of population, and if so, does that discriminate against groups less well represented in the city? What do you think?
It’s a hard question to answer. I think, at least for now, that population size and actual support should matter. Therefore, more represented groups should get holidays off, but only if they’re willing to sufficiently rally and petition for it. As with most forms of voting in the U.S., we recognize that we cannot please everyone, but can at least try to please the majority of people and try to make sure that those left out aren’t severely affected. In the case of those who currently do not receive a day off for their religious holidays, I think that they should not be held responsible for the days they miss while in observance. Meaning, they may not get the day off, but they will be given sufficient time to make up the work, and possibly a review of whatever they missed in class. If it’s one day, it shouldn’t be that terrible. I think that longer lasting holidays, if there are any, would be affected the most and that schools should be more understanding of that.
NYC’s public schools have become more diverse than ever before. If a certain group officially gets a day off, many other groups would also demand a day off for their cultural observances. If all groups are granted days off for their holidays, the school year would become a lot shorter. A shorter school year calls for a more condensed curriculum. Since students are too lazy to study during vacations, there will be a lot of self-studying and cramming before tests. Since this plan deprives students from the education they deserve, we should really consider Dane’s suggestion.
1. Dane’s suggestion is a very fair one! Students should be allowed to make up the work they missed on their religious/cultural observances. Thankfully, this is already in practice. Most teachers do not openly criticize students for their absence on cultural holidays. They usually give them a couple of days to make up the work they missed.
2. This proposal reduces tensions that may occur between groups that are granted official recognition for their holidays and groups that are NOT granted official recognition for their holidays.
3. It’s very hard to reach a compromise on holidays that last up to one week. Making up a whole week’s work is time-consuming and may result in a poor performance. It would be convenient if students attend two of the five days so they don’t fall behind.
Thank you.
While I agree that it would be impossible to represent all of New York’s groups in the NYC Public School calendar, I definitely think that Muslims are a large enough minority in New York to receive recognition of their holidays. I think the opposition to this recognition has in part to do with the city’s/DOE’s belief that more days spent in school = smarter kids. If Muslim holidays do get recognized, I suspect that extra school days will be added elsewhere, most likely at the end of the school year. Does anyone know why students in NYC have to spend a specific number of days in school? How do they calculate this? Why do snow days and other such days off have to be made up?
My friend and I used to talk about how Chinese New Year or Eid were never days off from school despite the large number of students that will not come to school. It is important that kids do not miss too many days from school. However, some cultures take their holidays very seriously. Perhaps in order in appease every ethic group we should only have major breaks, like Christmas and Spring break, as the only days off. The other, more ethic specific, holidays could just be days where the teacher would excuse the students who choose to not attend because of their holidays. This is done in college and should work for k-12 schools.
This bill will definitely be difficult to pass. Not because of the lack of support, but because of the people who are seated in the government. Most elected officials aren’t Muslim, and some practice other religions like Judaism or Christianity. Of course, it is ideal to integrate Muslim holidays into the NYC Public School Calendar since equality IS one of the fundamental ideas of the United States Constitution. And because this is a topic of religion, which makes it even more controversial.
In an ideal world, every ethnic and religious group would get their holidays off. In the real world, this won’t happen. This, like others have mentioned, is a difficult question to answer.
Kids can take the day off and make up the work the next day, this is an easy solution to part of the problem. Yet, I don’t think that this addresses the problem completely. I think Muslims are pushing for their holidays to be added to the NYC School Calendar not because kids can’t take the day off, they can, but because they want to feel the same sense of acknowledgement that the two other predominant religious groups in NYC feel (Jewish people and Christians).
I think that deciding which religious and ethnic groups have their holidays added to the School Calendar should be based on the size of the population and how badly that populations wants their holidays added to the calendar. If a population is large enough, most people would see it as logical to add their holidays to the calendar. Furthermore, if a population is large and motivated, this will force some people who would otherwise oppose the addition to condone it.
I agree that it may be difficult for New York City to classify Eid as a religious holiday because the dates of the holiday change every year. It may also cut down the days of schooling for the kids; however, this should not prevent Muslims and Muslim children from freely celebrating their holiday.
When I was little I had always wanted to take a day off to celebrate Diwali. My public school labeled absences for religious reasons to be excused absences, which meant they would not lower your grade for missing class. However, it would still be marked down on your transcript.
A possible solution would be to consider eliminating religious absences from the transcript. We should allow kids to take off for their cultural purposes but still have to make up for the work that they have missed. In order to ensure that kids do not continually become absent with the excuse of a religious holiday, we can provide a few school days towards the end of the school year. In this way, they will be present for the required amount of school days according to the law. This approach will allow other ethnic children to celebrate their religious holidays as well.
This presents a pretty interesting problem: If we consider some religious holidays, does that imply us recognizing all religious holidays? To this, there’s only 3 real options. One is to eliminate all religious holidays from the school calendar. Another is to add all religious holidays, be it Jewish, Muslim, Christian, etc. to the calendar. And the third is to only select some religious holidays from each religion while keeping the number of days in school constant. I think the third option would be the best alternative, as the first two will most definitely result in either the religious groups or teachers and educators losing out. If you incorporate all religious holidays (and there are a lot), you will be looking at a school calendar riddled with holes, and barely any time to actually teach and learn. Whereas if all religious holidays are simply removed, there will be major backlash from the religious community (including some teachers who’s religious duties are affected by it).