Dec 20 2006
War on Christmas- the English schools spoil Christmas and the bad hat in Long Island
The stories speak for themselves.
‘Santa Claus does not exist’ school tells stunned kids
A primary school has been accused of spoiling Christmas for pupils after a lesson telling them that Santa Claus does not exist.
Children as young as nine were told that only ’small children believe in Father Christmas’.
And yesterday their parents criticised teachers for taking the ‘magic’ out of the festive period.
The blunder came after the Year 5 pupils were given seasonal worksheets containing various festive classroom exercises.
One began by informing the children that ‘many small children believe in Father Christmas’.
It then went on to explain that thousands of letters sent by these children to Santa every year are actually answered by the Post Office.
Not content with the spolier, they then asked the kids to play grinch:
The youngsters were then asked to write a pretend letter from the Post Office to a child explaining why their requests for presents had been refused. (emphasis added)
One father-of-two, who asked not to be named, said: "My wife and I make a special effort to keep the belief in Santa in our daughter’s mind as we believe it adds to the magic of Christmas for her and her four-year-old brother.
"We even recall her shaking with excitement some years ago when sat at the bottom of our bed rummaging through her stocking.
"What gives the school the right to decide when children should know the truth about such a harmless matter when knowing the truth does take away that little bit of magic?"
"She’ll probably figure it out soon enough anyway, but we might have had one last Christmas without her knowing if it hadn’t been for the school."
That kinda sums it up for a lot of us. The magic and the mystery.
The spoksman for the group that created the bah humbug lesson plan, Ebenezer Scrooge Ruth Merttens, defended the work:
She said: "I feel sorry for the teacher concerned.
"But we produce the worksheets and it is up to teachers how they use them in class."
She added: "I don’t want to upset anybody but I would say by the age of ten it seems unlikely that a child wouldn’t be aware of Santa’s imaginary nature."
It continues;
Last week a primary school teacher was sacked for telling her young class that Santa does not exist.
The supply teacher apparently decided the pupils - some as young as nine - were too old to believe in Father Christmas.
Amanda Piovesana, whose daughter is in Year 5, said: "I am upset because it has taken away a magical part of Christmas for my daughter and a teacher should not have the right to do that. My little girl was very upset."
At yet another school, pupils went home in tears after being told Father Christmas does not exist by a teacher who was telling a class of nine-year-olds how Christmas is celebrated across the world.
Angry parents at Calcot Junior School in Berkshire said the teacher had ‘ruined’ Christmas for their children.
Ironic that England, the home of Dicken’s a Christmas Carol shold now be trying to stamp out one aspect of Christmas magic.
The other interesting story involves a bus driver who has been wearing a Santa hat for 5 years.
Santa Hat-Wearing Bus Driver Allowed to Keep Job
A Santa hat-wearing school bus driver on Long Island, N.Y., has won the right to keep wearing his festive headgear, Newsday reported.
Kenneth Mott, who keeps a long, white beard, almost lost his job after a parent called the bus management to complain. Mott, who has worn the red and white hat every Christmas since he started with the Bauman & Sons bus company five years ago, was ordered to stop wearing the hat because a child didn’t believe in Santa Claus and was bothered by the hat.
"I said, ‘What, are you kidding me?’" Mott recalled. "I thought it was a big joke," Newsday reported.
However, after Mott told other parents he might be fired for wearing the hat, supervisors changed their stance and said he could continue to wear the hat.
Did we learn nothing from A Miracle on 34th street?
Maybe this is the real Santa in his day job.
Ho ho ho. Geez lighten up people.
5 Responses to “War on Christmas- the English schools spoil Christmas and the bad hat in Long Island”
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Victory Is Our Goal…
Most in the drive by media and the liberal pundit talk shows talk as if we have already lost the war. That our military endeavor in Iraq has been merely a huge failure and we would be better off if we packed it up and came home right now and forget w…..
Karl
Folks on the right sure are reaching on this "War on Christmas" charade.
I am curious about what your take is on the Joint Chief’s reluctance to send more troops to Iraq…You previously bemoaned the fact that the Iraq Study Group didn’t have enough military minds involved…..Well, here you have it (granted there are divergent views w/i the military) and they aren’t too keen on what appears to be GW’s next move, ie., adding a substantial number of boots on the ground.
"Nice change of topic, but I’ll play,"
I’m not trying to bait you into anything here, so I’ll save my reponse to the troop subject when you blog on that in the future.
As for the WOC - the political correctness mantra doesn’t appear to apply in the Santa hat episode or the Xmas tree fiasco, but does make for a smooth transition into bashing the Left, ACLU, Demoncrats :), Jews, Muslims, etc..- I’m not refering to you in particular here.
If you’re letting what some idiots do/say ruin the holidays for you then that’s a shame..Life’s too short.
Have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Thanks for indulging a left of center moderate.
Take Care,
pilgrim
Nice change of topic, but I’ll play,
First, Bush’s proposal to increase overall troop strength is coming way too late for my peace of mind. We raped our military in the Clinton years and it should have been rebuilt long ago.
As for Iraq and increasing the boots on the ground, The JCOS have opposed it and I respect that opinion, because throwing more bodies at the problem may not be a good answer any more then throwing more money at problems is a good one. Someone tell Nichols and Gregoire that.
No matter whether you keep levels as they are or increase them I want to see what strategies are a part of the bigger picture.
More then hear what they do not want, i want to hear what these great minds actually are suggesting before i evaluate it further.
As for the war on Christmas "charade" the fact is that this idiotic insistence on political correctness and uber sensitivity is pissing me off, and it ruins the holidays.
Pilgrim,
What kind of pilgrim are you? You did not say. Did you have a very unhappy childhood? Didn’t get what you wanted for Christmas? So you think robbing little children now is your way of getting back? Since I had a pretty good childhood I can’t equate with you. I am a life time military brat that had it pretty good as did my brothers and sister. There is ten years difference in me and my little sister. The 3 older of us had a great time in helping her believe in Santa, the Easter Bunny, etc for as long as we could. I can only guess you didn’t get to have that since you came in to a topic hacking about the war with the musolimee’s instead of the topic of how the eternal do gooders think they can ruin anything for anyone including children and feel self rightous about it. If you have so much stored up about the war then take your crap to one of the sites that has that as a topic so the grownups can have a go at you. Don’t bring it to little kids that have no idea what you’re talking about and could care less when they are trying to deal with your cousins that like to spoil everything for everybody to feel good themselves. I do believe it’s called not having a life. Didn’t make it in the military huh? Got to blame someone don’t you.
If someone had done this when my kids were little we would have had a long talk out side of the school not in front of the kids. I feel sorry for people like you that did not have good childhoods. So grow up and get over it. Why don’t you go try some of the 12 step programs, maybe you will get some help there.
If you don’t have a name of some of the sites that discuss the war only, I’m sure they will discuss your problems let me know I’ll give you some sites that would love to have an open discussion with you. Until then to quote Karl from another comment somewhere “bite me”.