American Education: Diverse or Lazy?
“Diverse” and “lazy” aren’t exactly diametric opposites; they’re hardly related, in fact. Or are they?
Al Jazeera predicts that by this time next year, students may be able to jubilantly highlight two days on their school calendars as days off from school. The reason? The celebration of Eid-al-Fitr, a holiday that marks the end of the Muslim celebration Ramadan. Evidently, both mayoral candidates support the idea. Mayor Bloomberg, however, vehemently rejects the suggestion, positing that an observation of the holiday would “take away from the students’ education and open the door to similar requests from other religion and ethnic groups.”
But, isn’t that – in part – what America is all about? Aren’t our doors supposed to remain open to requests that would both acknowledge and respect other religions? Republican mayoral candidate, Joe Lhota seems to think so. He contends: “We have a growing Muslim community in the city of New York and their religion needs to be respected as all other religions are respected.”
Last week, my education class mused on diversity in America’s education system and the subtle ways by which the system continues to promote certain religions. We discussed how the “under God” clause in the Pledge of Allegiance has yielded controversy; but, when my professor’s question, “There’s one more really obvious enforcement of religion that we’re ignoring; what is it?” met with blank stares and flummoxed faces, she said it: holidays.
Holidays, such as Christmas and Easter are not only overt acknowledgments of Catholicism and Christianity, but their celebration suggests that they bear more significance than Jewish or Muslim holidays. In New York, my professor explained, we do a much better job at veiling this prejudice with politically correct terms such as “winter” and “spring” break. This isn’t the case in other states. Pennsylvania, she argued, will call it “Christmas” and “Easter Break.” In New York, we’ve grown to acknowledge Jewish holidays, and therefore enjoyed the days off from school. But this begs the question: Why do we only celebrate Jewish and Catholic holidays? Can we afford to celebrate all religious holidays at the expense of our education? If not, then what is the standard for deciding which holidays are worth celebrating?
I think this leaves us with a bit of a paradox. Can there be a middle ground between these two arguments? Do you think we’re willing to grant days off from school because of political correctness, or do you think it’s an affirmation of the lazy American stereotype?
-Alex Hajjar
The Junction Journal 