I take the reasonable tack that Christmas is the dominant, most pre-eminent holiday in the US and that other cultures and faiths may have other celebrations which is more moderate than replacing Christmas with Diwali or that American culture is the exclusive important one. Maybe I’m too reasonable these-a-days.

By Richard Chen on September 12th, 2009

Great point, Justin, and one that merits our alert attention! It is a false victory for those who support Diwali, and it will just be used to fuel the xenophobic hatred and rancor of those who say this is a “Christian” nation. I am not sure “reason” is the flavor “value of the day” any more, Richard, not when we have people touting death panels, socialist endoctrination, and “You Lie”, AND our mainstream press covers it as “news” on CNN.

By Quan on September 13th, 2009

This is silliness. Why can’t Texan kids learn about BOTH Christmas and Diwali? For that matter, why shouldn’t children across the country study ALL of our country’s rich religious and cultural traditions?

We all have much to learn from Easter, Ramadan, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Diwali, AND Christmas.

By gautam on September 13th, 2009

I stick to my guns (and aptly so since we’re talking about Texas). We shouldn’t exclude a tradition like Christmas from being taught just because it’s “mainstream”.

Ironically, there’s more to learn about Christmas than meets the eye, especially because it’s become so commercialized. Indeed, how many people know that Jesus Christ wasn’t even born on Dec. 25?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1093053/Cancel-Christmas–Jesus-born-June-17-say-scientists.html

Let’s be inclusive, not exclusive.

By gautam on September 13th, 2009

The world has many religions and instead of rating and sorting them, students will just have to learn them all. Excluding Christmas would be negligent of true world culture as would be excluding Diwali. I think we’re all reasonable folk, though indeed the unthinking world of fast media works against us.

By Richard Chen on September 13th, 2009

I agree that there is time to discuss Christmas in class with other faiths’ major holidays.

At the same time, I agree there’s only so much time for instruction. I am no expert, but I think for covering a topic like this, about three days worth of class time would be adequate for a fair but brief overview of all the holidays we’ve discussed in this thread.

By A-gu on September 14th, 2009

I agree with others that both should be taught. Proposing that Christmas has to be replaced with Diwali doesn’t make sense to me. Those who are not Christian can learn about Christmas, and Christians can learn about other religions, and learn about Christmas. Some cities in Texas have a significant South Asian population, so I am surprised Diwali was not listed back in 1997.

By Selma on September 14th, 2009

I asked my college students for their viewpoint on this, and surprise, surprise, they think we should take every religious holiday off!!! I am sure, Justin, that would even cut into the shortage of time you see as a problem. The fact of the matter is that if we view our multicultural students and their parents as the source of this knowledge, then, as teachers, we can involve all families into this knowledge base and use these opportunities to bring the classroom and the home closer. We will be attacked by those who oppose multicultural education in the name of their xenophobia, but we need to be smart and 1) be sensitive to Justin’s awareness of the teacher’s workload, 2) be proactive in preempting our friends in the Judeo-Christian community that being inclusive make their slice of the pie smaller. We all are aiming for the same respect, the same attention. We just need to ratchet down the emotionalism attached to an egocentric way of looking at the world from each of us. It is not easy to sleep with the ennemy, but ultimately, it may be the only way to change the world.

By Quan on September 20th, 2009