Thanksgiving for kindergartners in Claremont
Do you remember these holiday times in elementary school where the origins of the holiday were often presented in class activities and performances as plays? Well, doing things like that might get up a little controversy, maybe a lot of controversy. In days of old, or older days for some, or maybe, not too old days for others of you, WE did those things and we learned, in the old hands-on learining style that gets us into the subject so that we can understand it better..
Over in Claremont, there were these two elementary schools, Condit and Mountain View, that had a decades-old tradition of having kindergarten students dress up as Pilgrims and Indians, all coming together for the Thanksgiving feast. The students would alternate by years, with one school taking the role of Indians and the other being the Pilgrims. The students walked over from one school to the other for the festivities.
This got one of the parents, Michelle Raheja, to object with a claim that this whole process was demeaning to American Indians and was racist. The parent an English professor at UC Riverside and objected to this. The school board met last week and heard from both sides on this, deciding to allow the festivities but no costumes for the kids. This all is too much political correctness that happens to dampen lots of things from the way we had seen in the past. Do you see Cinco de Mayo celebrations cut out the costumes because they are not “authentic” representations or racist? I haven’t heard that.
The history of Thanksgiving is of peace and sharing, and the idea that this is about genocide, racism and false events is simply bogus. The conflicts between the settlers and American Indians were not same as what the Thanksgiving celebration was all about. All things were not hostile and should not be assumed to have been so. The real haters in my view are the purveyors of dissension and hate who seek to "uncover" as politically incorrect whatever they decide impinges on their view of society, past and present.
Learning about the history that make up our culture comes to kids in representations for the sake of simplicity; something age-appropriate, and those more detailed history books come later. But some people use the events to raise their personal agenda issues, loudly objecting in their protest to whatever falls within their view. This is one of those cases.
The parents decided to go ahead with the childrens' festivities and have the kids wear Pilgrim and Indian costumes they made, and the officials did not interfere. People protested that to some degree, but it was pretty peaceful. After all, these are kindergarten kids enjoying the holiday with a completely positive feeling, not one of the holidays based on a sad event. A lot of people look to things to find whatever they disagree with and call it racism or something that it is not. The personal agendas of a few in this case almost took away an enjoyable experience.
The parents decided to keep their kids home from school today to send their message to the Board. The district gets money based on an ADA, Average Daily Attendance, and it is affected by absences. Parents were of the opinion that the Board might consider money being more important than words as the parents’ response to the decision of the Board. I normally object to students missing school as a form of protest, but for kindergarten, the day is a short one and a pre-holiday early day off for a young kid is not pivotal to gaining an education, where it might be productive for older students. I will say one thing that this certainly shows, and that is parent-involvement.
You can read more on this with a Google “Claremont, thanksgiving, kindergarten” or such to search to find the several stories, with details on more of the objections and the responses. Objectors even tried to make comparison of the event to Jews having a celebration with Nazis, so you can see the extremes to which the opinions ranaged.
For one source of an historical perspective See Nathaniel Filbrick, “Mayflower,” (Description: http://www.nathanielphilbrick.com/mayflower/index.html ) for a view of the details of the time.
This book, like so many other books, is at the L.A. Public Library [Call No. 974.4 P545] so you don’t have to buy to read for two weeks at a time; the borrower cards are issued free with some lightweight proof of being a city resident.) The web site is a wealth of information and searches as well as requests for books to be sent to your local branch for pick up is a helpful service provided online.
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