MaddLlama said:
We had the opposite problem when I was in school. I lived in a highly Jewish area, and for winter chorus one year a number of parents complained that "Silent Night" was on the playlist, and eventually what happened was they cut out all the religious Christmas songs, and we sang winter songs, and two songs that were partially in Hebrew. The amount of politics in schools is so amazing that it's painful. I see it even moreso now that most of my friends are teachers.
We did the same at our local school, but just through negotiation. There's no reason a programme can't have a Christmas feel to it without having to resort to "Jesus my Lord and Saviour" kind of stuff. Jingle Bells, anyone?
My kids' middle school band director was an absolute genius at putting out a great program that was good music and offended no one.
Considering the religious demographics of my kids schools from elementary on up, it really would be pretty silly to have a winter programme that's all Christmas music.
People often need to be reminded that they do not have the right to not be offended.
So true!
Most things that could be offensive or off putting are pretty easily remedied if people just sit down and talk like adults, though.
If I think something's getting uneven treatment, I'd much rather just go in an talk and see if there isn't some compromise that makes everyone happy. Most times, the people putting the programmes together just never stopped to think what non-Chrsitians would make of them, or what some of the obvious alternatives would be. Making everyone UNhappy is not much of an alternative.
I used to be room mom for years. We had Muslims, JWs, Hindus, Christians, Jews, Baha'is, Wiccans, and not religious in the class. I always managed to put on a party that made everyone happy and that didn't cost any more money or effort on my part. It's really not that difficult. Sometimes you might have to call a parent and ask a question. How tough it is to be considerate.
