School’s Holiday Lights Debated

I read Robert McLaren’s Orange County Voices column of Dec. 31, “Diversity Belongs in the Curriculum,” and was dismayed by his not-so-veiled attack on Rabbi Mark Miller and the others who complained about “holiday” lights being put up at the school by parents.

Miller and the others were not complaining about something that was part of the curriculum, and I am sure they would not have expressed the slightest displeasure if the parents who put up the lights had instead asked to come into the classroom to share with the students how they celebrate their holiday, just as other parents with other religious beliefs had done. But instead the parents chose to go outside the curriculum, by literally going outside the classroom, exactly the opposite of what McLaren wrote was appropriate.

The professor should have paid closer attention to what he wrote, because if he had, he would have praised Miller and his supporters, not criticized them. It was they, and not the parents who put up the lights, who were actually living the beliefs expressed by McLaren in his column.

STEVEN RENICK

Los Alamitos

* To set the record straight, Robert B. McLaren’s reference to me in his opinion piece bore no relation to the truth of the situation. Neither I nor any member of my congregation “demanded the dismantling of holiday lights put up at the school [Mariners Elementary in Newport Beach] by a group of parents.”

No demands were made in public or private, formally or informally by me or by any member of Temple Bat Yahm. I merely stated my views to your interviewer on what I consider to be the impropriety of Christmas decorations in a public school. I believe that festooning a public school with the tokens of Christmas advances a Christological agenda and is, therefore, inappropriate. I agree with the professor in his urging cultural exploration in school curricula, but I believe there is ample place for the expression of denominational and sectarian themes in the home, house of worship and the human heart.

RABBI MARK S. MILLER

Temple Bat Yahm

Newport Beach

* I concur with Robert B. McLaren’s column advocating teaching students about religious and cultural celebrations. I have fond memories of learning about Hanukkah in my Oakland school in the 1950s, though I’m of another faith. I still remember the Hanukkah songs we were all taught in second and third grade, and was delighted to learn what Hanukkah meant to my Jewish playmates.

To learn and understand the profound and sacred traditions of our fellow travelers on this earth is a joy. It enriches one’s life, and fosters love and respect for others.

KATHLEEN LUBECK

PETERSON

Irvine

* Allow me to join what by now I’m sure is a chorus of educators applauding the sentiments expressed in Robert B. McLaren’s column, while wondering whether it was a means of eliciting this chorus (and thereby providing quantitative data from the field) or whether the good professor just doesn’t get out much.

As someone who has worked with students for 20 years in Orange, Santa Ana and Los Angeles, I have watched and participated in multiple opportunities for multicultural education of young people, including a winter program just performed by our first- and second-graders, which included songs, languages and holiday customs from around the world. This was not an anomaly, but has been standard practice for decades.

My class of fourth-graders learned about the Five Pillars of Islam, customs and practices associated with Islam, and were able to recognize common themes and names between Judaism, Islam and Christianity. They also have learned, in the process of language development and social science, about some of the pantheistic cultures (and etymologies of related words, such as English days of the week). In learning about the winter solstice, they learned about the Christian practice of overlaying Christian holidays on local holidays.

Professional educators are routinely criticized, and exhorted by those outside the classroom who seem to lack even a basic appreciation of what occurs on the inside. I’m sure McLaren has a busy work schedule, as do we all; however, it would be best if he minimally investigated his topic before awarding us with his pronouncements. He would thus be spared the embarrassment of reinventing the wheel. I wish to assure him that the celebration of diversity is, in fact, taking place in our public schools, and invite him to step out and visit some of the multicultural festivities.

SHERYL ANDERSON

Dana Point