A Holiday Story

My first year teaching was a year of learning, creating, playing, and collaborating. Every year as the holidays start I am reminded of a parent who confronted me at the beginning of the school day in October.

In an aggressive manner this parent approached me and said, "Day of the Dead is not part of the second grade curriculum. I am going to go to the principal about this because I am so upset."

I explained to this concerned father that the lesson was geared toward single paragraph writing, with an opening sentence, 4 detail sentences, and a closing sentence. Since I give a writing lesson everyday and this particular day was "Day of the Dead" I tied in our Social Studies curriculum (ancestors and cultural customs) into our writing lesson.

The father, who I'm not sure was listening to my response replied, "My family is Catholic and we don't believe in that. We don't even like Halloween but, we let my son dress up so that he doesn't feel left out."

I told him that I understood his view and that I, myself, am Catholic. Furthermore, I explained to this father that I teach the students that even though we may not believe, understand, or agree in certain beliefs or customs of other cultures or groups of people it is important to know and learn about people of the past and present from around the world.

At that time the father didn't have a reply and as he turned to walk away down the school's hall I said to him, "Oh, Mr.______ with the holidays coming you should know that I teach my students about Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, the different Santa Clauses around the world, and we close the year with a cultural potluck. If you'd like, I can arrange for your child to be in a different class during these lessons." He didn't respond to me, nor go to the principal about his concerns, and didn't mention anything of his "Day of the Dead" discussion with me again.

Most of you may think this isn't a holiday story at all. For me, it reminded me how lucky I was to be a teacher and that I have the ability to teach and learn from such unique and diverse children on a daily basis. That year all my holiday lessons went on without a hitch. As a diverse class we learned, explored, discussed, created, and played....together. Isn't that what the holidays are about?