The Po Show

Holiday

Kick ass song by GreenDay or iconic one by Madonna? Actually, it's St. Patrick's Day.

This is one of those "holidays" that's confusing for little kids, since it's a special day, when special stuff happens, but you have to go to school. Matthew realized that today was a school day, and was excited about it (his teacher concocted a story about how leprechauns come into the classroom the night before SPD and mess everything up, so he was eager to see that), but Tessa asked this morning where we were going, and what we were doing, because she anticipated a day off from school for herself and Matthew. I remember that Matthew thought that Groundhog Day was going to be a school holiday, so I understand this stuff must seem somewhat arbitrary.

On the subject of holidays, next week is a short school week. Friday is a holiday, for Good Friday. Thursday is also a holiday, for staff development. I'm sure that the staff dev day is planned to coincide with the Friday holiday, to minimize the disruption to everyone's schedule. But what is UP with Good Friday being a school holiday? It was a holiday last year when we were in MA, so I'm wondering if this is another east coast thing. In the Boston area, I was considering it a Catholic thing, but if it was regional then St. Patrick's Day should have been a school holiday.

I really have a problem with all of these religious holidays being school holidays. It's somewhat more equal opportunity, here in NY, as Rosh Hashanah was a two day holiday, but I still can't help but feel it just ain't right. No Muslim holidays, BTW, or other religions, of which there are no small number of adherents around. Yeah, I realize that if you started giving off all the major holidays for all the world's religions, the kids would never go to school. But it still doesn't explain to me WHY THEY GET RELIGIOUS HOLIDAYS OFF to begin with, of any religion.

These are public schools, serving children of all backgrounds. It does not seem right to me to give days off from school for days marking significance for a select group. But that's just me.