Petition to reverse WRDSB's "no Halloween in schools" decision
chng.it/yM8FYYrBps
chng.itPosted Oct 18, 2021, 12:36 AM UTC
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chng.itCan someone explain why this is such a big deal? You're going to take your kids or trick or treating, to parties, etc. Does it matter they can't wear their costume to school?
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They cite it has to do with inclusion, by excluding activities.
All these types of events are teaching moments, and they should run them for all cultures and get all kids involved. If some want to be excused, let them.
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Now take a moment and imagine you were in the minority here. Would you still feel the same way if you didn't celebrate these events? We're a diverse population and we need to start acting accordingly.
Maybe we've just hit a point where school should be for an education and you can celebrate whatever you want on your time.
Edit: I'm in support of inclusion and positive activities obviously I think some people miss the point that it isn't about trying to make others celebrate your traditions, being inclusive means not giving priority to some and not all evenly. Here's an example that explains how I feel. When I was younger we had pizza day at school but students had to pay for the pizza. They could choose not to and bring their own lunch. It's depressing watching your classmates look with envy because they can't be included for many reasons like dietary restrictions, poverty, etc. It was better to remove pizza day and find something where everyone could be included and participate. I feel this is the direction they are taking. So the kids can't won't wear their costumes I'm sure they'll still have a fun day.
Edit 2: After reading the replies I'm wrong on this one. I won't delete the post though so maybe others can learn as well. My bad folks.
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What's the point in having a diverse set of cultures if you are just going to try and make them all the same?
If you live in Canada, we celebrate Halloween. If you go to India, they will celebrate dwali. If you go to Mexico, they will celebrate Cinco de Mayo. Different cultures are different. That's a good thing, we should celebrate our differences not try and become some big homogeneous culture where no one has any identity.
I don't see anything wrong with celebrating traditionally Canadian holidays in schools - you are in Canada, Canada is a unique place, that is OK and shouldn't just be ignored.
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And those other celebrations would honestly probably be welcome in schools, so long as they weren't to disruptive. This take is pretty hypocritical by WRDSB
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These are children, not adults. Kids are more productive when there is fun involved in learning. They should be able to break up the monotony of school work with some fun.
My kids go to school 6 hours a day, 5 days a week and I know how important it is for them to have fun to look forward to. They want to celebrate with class mates and teachers they don't see outside of school.
Most of the elementary schools in WRDSB do recognize different cultures and their holidays currently which is fantastic, so why would Halloween get dropped.
Socio economics was another reason listed as canceling Halloween. Have a costume drive to support those who can't afford one, then these kids would also have a costume for Halloween night.
Work together instead of canceling. Teaching about tradition and culture now while they are kids will allow them to be talorant and understanding adults.
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I've lived in a country where I was a minority and enjoying the local culture and joining in on the fun was a great time and a good opportunity to bond with locals.
If they had to cancel all their traditions on my account of me not being "included" they probably would have resented me. Also I wouldn't expect to move somewhere and be catered to. What exactly is the problem here?
Your pizza day example doesn't even help your argument: Lets make sure no one can enjoy pizza because 2 poor kids and 2 lactose intolerant kids and 1 kid who's parents convinced him to be vegan can't also get pizza.
When I was a kid, my mom didn't give me money for the 'pizza days' because pizza was unhealthy. I don't care. Nothing happened. I ate a regular lunch. There was one pizza day where I got pizza, and it was more exciting, and I remember the pizza being cold anyways. That's all I remember about it. I wasn't crying about not being able to be 'included' in pizza days and I wasn't traumatized by the $2.50 economic flex of my classmates.
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Username checks out
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Students can still wear a costume if they want as long as there’s no mask/makeup that interferes with Covid protocols, so I don’t understand the hullabaloo.
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The director of education seems to be the kind of person who would step over anything to enforce his religious beliefs. This is a threat to the very essence of Canadian inclusion, equality and tolerance. As an immigrant, I never expected to see this kind of backwards shit here
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Same!! As an immigrant, I am so disappointed with this backward.
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"Do I hear happiness in here?!?"
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I guess the WRDSB reasoning is that something like dressing up in costumes would get kids overexcited and less likely to social distance, but they're already not doing that. I'm not going to sign any Change.org petition myself since they're utterly useless, but I do think kids should get to wear a costume on Halloween. That said...Halloween is on a Sunday so? Does it really matter? They'll still get to go out and trick-or-treat and unlike last year - where we didn't fully understand the severity of the virus and people were building wild contraptions out of PVC pipe to drop candy in kids pillowcases from 60 meters away - most this year have nothing to worry about going door to door for some candy.
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The reasoning is that some families can't afford costumes for the kids, and also that some families don't celebrate. These two reasons end up resulting in there being a lot of absences from school that day (if Halloween is on Sunday, typically you would celebrate at school on the Friday). Has nothing to do with covid as apparently this was in discussion even before the pandemic.
I personally don't agree with the decision, but it has nothing to do with covid. Even though their original messaging earlier this month did say that.
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I also think this is a pretty poor decision. It's 100% a cultural event, and their explanation just makes it even worse...
The board has decided to scrap Halloween plans for 2021 in an effort to make schools more inclusive. "We have to acknowledge that not all of our families celebrate Halloween for a variety of reasons," Crissa Hill, the superintendent of student achievement and well-being at WRDSB, told The Mike Farwell Show on 570 NEWS.
Are they going to ban every cultural display that not all families adhere to? Because if so, uh.......yikes.
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Honestly. Not everyone celebrates Christmas so what do we do? We talk about the other celebrations that happen around that time. Or we can talk about why some people choose not to celebrate and how that's ok too.
The financial argument doesn't hold a lot of water for me either (except to highlight how much of an income inequality problem we have and how maybe we should be addressing that). We could organize costume drives, as I have no doubt many families have costumes they are no longer using. I was a lower income kid and remember some years not having a costume. Admittedly it didn't feel great but I still liked all the other stuff we did around Halloween.
Plus, I feel like Halloween is a lot of kids' first introduction into kind of like, the occult side of the world a little bit... Or I dunno, just a different kind of thing for kids to see and learn about that isn't vanilla and totally square and mainstream lol.
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>Honestly. Not everyone celebrates Christmas so what do we do?
Christmas is a secular cultural tradition. People coming here should try to assimilate.
At the same time, Canada needs to change too. We should be including and adding more cultural traditions. Secularize Diwali, EID, etc.
Instead we just cave to intolerant bigots, in the same of inclusivity.
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Jeez, give it 5 years and kids will be wearing uniforms in public school so nobody gets offended.
That sounds like such a weak decision on WRDSB's part. Halloween is cultural for sure, but it's also one of those things where it can defy cultures. Sure maybe culturally or religiously conservative parents new to the country might not be that into it, but for most people it is what it is...a day for kids to dress up in costumes, have fun with their friends and get a little spoiled with treats. Stripping that away from youth is just going to make them weird.
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i think it's time for a new director of education, stop pushing your beliefs off on everyone and let the kids be kids
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I'd sign the petition if I thought it would make the slightest difference, but I know it won't. While I can't justify or explain WRDSB's behaviour, I know how they 'think' when it comes to stuff like this. In their way of thinking, they know they're right and anyone who dares to even question them is uneducated and racist.
You can't reason with someone who knows they're infallible.
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