Put Christmas Back Into Schools

Last evening, I read a “holiday message” addressed to the parents of a local elementary school class. The message had no mention of the word Christmas or anything else that could be construed as having “religious” overtones.

Well, why don’t we do away with our calendar also? After all, it began after the death of Christ. Maybe we should grind off our national motto from the coins in our pocket. “In God We Trust” does seem rather “religious” compared to the efforts to remove the word Christmas from our children’s classrooms.

Last time I looked, we still have a national hymn. It begins, “God of our fathers,” and believe it or not, both our national anthem (just the first stanza is attempted before baseball games) and “America” very clearly thank God for the blessings of our nation. Our forefathers were certainly not ashamed to openly express their faith.

When I was in elementary school, we were taught that on Thanksgiving, the pilgrims invited the Indians to join them in their [giving of] thanks to God. Now I suppose that our kids are being taught that the settlers were thanking the Indians for teaching them how to grow corn or something equally ridiculous.

Back to the “winter holidays.” If teachers are censored from mentioning the word Christmas, how can they get away with Washington’s birthday and Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday? Are those events more significant than the birth of Christ?

Clearly the 2,000-year-old holiday celebrated around the world on Dec. 25 honors an event that our classrooms should not be ordered to ignore. Educators especially should want to recognize the birth of this man--after all he’s also been called the greatest teacher who ever lived!

BILL HOFFMAN

Huntington Beach