oooooh maaaaaan
I'm going to need so much more butter to go with the outrage-tears
When I went to SUNY-Binghamton (that's a state school), it had such a large Jewish student population (40%) that we got Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur off. Note that if you weren't Jewish, the latter sucked. They CLOSED THE DINING HALLS after lunch until the next breakfast afterward. We ordered pizza from off campus, which meant coming up with cash. We did not get Columbus Day off. Instead the Hispanic students would yell at us Italian Americans about something called "La Raza!" (literally "the Race", but it was some remnant of the Chicano Power movement). I was also an Upstater, so I had no context. Columbus didn't look like he'd molested anyone as well off as the guy yelling at me. He's bilingual, from Queens, and getting a degree from the top public university in the state -- talk about hegemony to some actual honkies, man. I guess what I'm saying is: 1992 sucked. 1993 was much better. Oh, and pizza.
- New york schools. I swear I saw an article about them going vegan a while ago too. I guess it would make sense if a lot of people in NY are muslem, and I remember lot of times in Florida we got out for some odd holidays, but I doubt that is the case here.Guys, look at how progressive we are!
It gives children raised in a Christian society more context to observe another prominent religion outside of the lens of jihadism that the news tends to focus on. I think that's progressive in a real way. I can't imagine it matters much to competing the curriculum either.
How about we teach people critical thinking rather than passive aggressively trying to make them accept other things by taking school days off for a group that probably doesn't make up more than a few percentage points of the wider audience? How about we teach about all religions inside of history/social studies in a secular way, that goes over things like the Crusades to give people a basis to compare and contrast... Shit, we already do that. Observing a few holidays isn't going to undo parents, culture, and hundreds of other effects. It's a tiny thing that only will bring more scorn and dislike than it will bring acceptance or progress. And if the school does already have a significant portion of people who do believe in the Islamic faith, then the students will get exposure to it by that basis alone, no holidays needed (although you should accommodate and have days off at that point).