by Fatima Ahmad

Created on: January 23, 2009

Equity and anti-racism are terms that fly around the teaching community but not often practised. I wonder if the helium question was posed as: Should public school children be asked to fast in Ramadhan, if there would even be a debate. The problem is that people obscure the issues when it is their own religion and cultural practices in question. I am an elementary teacher in the public school system. I grew up only attending school in the public school system. Giving one religion or culture dominance (and the reasons for abstaining from Halloween are faith based,) is how students are inculcated with beliefs that are not shared by them. They are made to feel inadequate, inferior and essential not normal. I grew up constantly excluded from Christmas and Halloween and all other activities. My own celebrations were never mentioned. Now there is usually some announcement on the PA system that nobody listens to and then on with our normal day. I myself have taught about the history of Halloween, this is not the issue. The question is should a party celebrating it be held during school time. Teachers somehow always confuse the two issues. Teaching someone about another's religion or culture does not then translate into making them be a part of it. Celebrating our differences doesn't mean adopting those differences. Children don't have a choice in the curriculum that is taught. I would not ask my students to fast a day in Ramadhan while I most certainly would teach them about it and would continue to privately fast with members of my own religious community. Would I then tell parents, well if you don't want your child to fast today, please keep them home or better yet, when at lunch time, we are not eating, but making Eid cards and playing games, they, at lunch time they can sit in the hallway and eat by themselves and do some worksheets. Its ridiculous and yet its the exact same thing. People who think its just a secular holiday and its just for fun. Well I could make Eid even more fun for the students if I chose to do so. (I wouldn't even advocate for that, though, because my holidays are still sacred, and I want to keep the sacrosanctness of them. If others choose to turn their holidays into secular events devoid of any religion, that is their choice, but recognize that its a choice that not all people of faith share with them.)

Those who think that the holidays are not cultural or faith based, but rather just the 'normal' thing to do as Americans, or Canadians are speaking from a perspective who have been a part of the mainstream society and blind to the perspectives and feelings of minorities. For all the students who can't voice that yet, I'm telling you.

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