Originally posted by cybersquig
yep, back on point lol then I guess that the question becomes this: at what point does the desire to make someone\'s life a little easier justify the active quashing of religion? I\'m not offering an answer to this necessarily, but it seems to me that this is the question that is faced.
Well tobe honest you´re allready making 2 very big assumptions in your question-
1: the \"poor\" kids are only mildly irritated, and
2: Religion is \"quashed\"
I´m not seeing religion being \"quashed\" - I´m seeing the consumer christmas being banned, and that´s a completely different thing. At the same time it is true that in probably most schools the social index might not be diverse enough to warrant this kind of ban, but I´m fairly certain that it is in some cases.
I would put the question more in the lines of what the schools hsould be allowed to in order to give the kids an education - in an hatefree environment that won´t leave them emotionally scarred for life (and that really does happen to some people). A school should be a safe heaven for the kids where they should have no other worry in life than figuring out how to get smarter.
When my daughter starts wouldn´t mind going further than saying no talk about christmas to make sure she gets that environment.
Originally posted by ScottRadom
Am I the only one who feels obliged to stick up for consumerism?
I grew up the poorest kid in school. Everybody else was getting seriously awesome loot for Christmas and I didn\'t get much at all.
So? Why the hell should kids not be allowed to talk about what they ask for, what they want, or any of the gift giving/recieving aspects of Christmas?
For hundreds of years we\'ve celebrated a holiday that has turned into a family celebration and the day-of-days for kids. I\'m appaled at the attempted block of this in the school setting. As if kids aren\'t going to be doing there bragging anyway.
The religious issue isn\'t mine to argue about. But the excitement of opening presents is to be suppressed? That\'s lame.
I myself is a very happy member of the consumer tribe, and wouldn´t want to have it any other way, but there are pitfalls.
It is impossible to deny that consumerism does make it very much easier to spot the \"loosers\" and making their life miserable- you yourself have tried being at the bottom. Imagine getting that rubbed in your face every day - that makes most kids extremly unhappy, and some makes a few snap.
Schools are under tremendously pressure to stop the violence, but have very few means and ressources. They push the buttons they do have, and try banning christmas talk in order to stop students dividing even further.
It´s true, that the bragging will take place other places, but the schools have no responsibility there - we as parents do.
