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Teaching About Holidays

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Title: Teaching About Holidays

1
Teaching About Holidays
2
Teaching About Holidays

3
The Classroom as a Melting Pot

Every classroom is filled with diverse cultures
and religions
Children should learn about others cultures and
holidays in order to facilitate their
understanding, tolerance, and acceptance of one
another

4
Teaching About Holidays Can Be a Touchy Subject

Students are in our classrooms about 9 months out
of the year. Throughout this time, each month
provides many opportunities for us as teachers to
help our students understand and learn about
other cultures, customs, and traditions as well
as their own.
As teachers, we need to provide an education that
is unbiased, making sure we teach about many
different cultures, not just our own or the
majority. Teaching about holidays MUST be done
in an unbiased way !
While emphasizing one particular holiday or
religious practice is prohibited, teachers are
permitted to teach about a variety of cultures
and traditions without emphasizing one. Many
activities including art, music, and drama, can
be used to teach about different ways of
thinking, as long as it is not pushed upon
students.

5
Teaching About Holidays Can Be a Touchy
Subject

Planning creative and sensitive holiday
observances is a challenge educators and
administrators across the country face every fall
and winter especially the December Dilemma.
Although public schools are prohibited from
sponsoring religious celebrations, teachers can
design seasonal activities that respect the
rights, beliefs and cultural practices of all
students.
The special challenge is to create holiday
experiences that are both inclusive and
meaningful.

6
Teaching About Holidays Can Be a Touchy
Subject

7
Why Teach About Holidays ?

It is important for students to learn about
others cultures and traditions in order to help
them accept and understand how people are
different, and that it is okay to be different.
Students who are different will feel accepted,
and feel more comfortable helping everyone
understand their culture and traditions.
Teaching about holidays enriches students
awareness of how holidays are celebrated
differently around the world, and is a great
learning experience for students who have never
heard of some of these holidays or traditions.

8
Why Teach About Holidays

9
The holidays which we celebrate help identify who
we are, as individuals and as a community.
10
Holidays Categories

11
Popular Religious Holidays

12
Popular U.S. Patriotic Holidays

13
Special Days and Months

14
Frequently Asked Questions

May religious music, art, literature and drama be
used in teaching about holidays?
Yes. Music, art, literature, and drama with
religious themes may be included in teaching
about holidays, provided that their overall
effect is not to endorse religion and that they
are presented in a religiously neutral, prudent
and objective manner, and relate to sound,
secular educational goals. Indeed, the study of
religiously inspired material can, in the correct
setting, be made a part of a secular educational
program.
Religious symbols such as crosses, crèches and
menorahs may be used as teaching aids in the
classroom provided that the symbols are displayed
as examples of the cultural and religious
heritage of the holiday, and are temporary in
nature.

15
FAQs Continued

May students be excused from classes that teach
about religious holidays if they have objections
based on religious beliefs?
Yes. If the religious beliefs of students or
their parents conflict with the content of
classroom activity, students may be excused. When
excusing a student, care should be taken to avoid
stigmatizing or appearing to punish the student
(for example, a student who is not permitted to
take part in a holiday party should not be
required to sit in the hall and do math
problems).

16
FAQs Continued

17
FAQs Continued

What are the responsibilities of the school
toward a student who has taken an excused absence
for a religious holiday?
A student should not suffer adverse or
prejudicial consequences from an excused absence
for religious observance and should be allowed a
reasonable opportunity to make up the schoolwork
missed due to the absence. Penalties to
scholastic records may not be imposed upon
students who are absent for religious holidays.
Students should never feel pressured to choose
between school attendance and religious
observance.

18
Helpful Holiday Book Lists