We all owe a lot to teachers; they not only educate us, but they help form some of our views of the world we live in. Teachers educate us about the history of our country. Teachers instruct us on basic skills we’ll need to get by, such as reading, writing and arithmetic. Teachers also have great responsibility, and some do a very poor job of upholding their end.
Anne Foley, the principal at Kennedy School in Somerville, Mass., sent an email to teachers warning them about celebrating Thanksgiving; but she didn’t stop with that holiday.
“When we were young we might have been able to claim ignorance of the atrocities that Christopher Columbus committed against the indigenous peoples,” Principal Foley wrote.
“We can no longer do so. For many of us and our students celebrating this particular person is an insult and a slight to the people he annihilated. On the same lines, we need to be careful around the Thanksgiving Day time as well.”
Foley had already instructed teachers not to allow students to dress up for Halloween.
Foley isn’t alone in the Somerville school system. Superintendant Tony Pierantozzi said that Halloween is “problematic” because of connections to witchcraft.
Somerville Mayor Joe Curtatone, who has three kids at the school said, “I’m the son of Italian immigrations, so I take Columbus Day very near and dear, and I’m proud that he discovered America and that America’s named after another Italian,” Curtatone said. “If we ignore and we don’t want to talk about it, if we want to stifle debate, then we’re ignoring history.”
Some Kennedy students have also weighed in.
“I don’t like that. I’ve celebrated Halloween since I was a little kid and I don’t think it’s right to ban it,” one Kennedy student told MyFoxBoston.
“I think that it’s kind of ridiculous because we should celebrate what we want to celebrate. We shouldn’t be told what we shouldn’t by other people,” another said.
The situation even caught the attention of U.S. senator for Massachusetts, Scott Brown.
“Let’s not take political correctness to the extreme. Let the kids in Somerville enjoy Halloween,” Brown tweeted Friday.
Teachers should instruct, not moralize. Allow the children to make their own conclusions or discuss what they learned in school with their parents. Principals insisting their own personal views be taught have no place in public schools. Parents that want morals taught can choose to send their kids to religious schools, but public schools are about education not morality.
If Ms. Foley wants her teachers instructing on the origins of holidays, fine. If historical facts back up her views the children will see that for themselves. Not to discuss Columbus discovering America isn’t education. Thanksgiving isn’t has a historical basis and children need to know why we celebrate this day. Halloween is a traditional fall festival, not a national holiday. If Ms. Foley or Mr. Pierantozzi don’t believe in, fine, keep your kids home. Leave moralizing where it belongs, with the parents. Here’s an idea: save the jobs of two sane talented teachers and let Ms. Foley and Mr. Pierantozzi go to work for George Soros.