Schools’ Choices for Holiday Shows

What do you get when you mix political correctness, the LAUSD and 800 elementary school students? Eleven songs about snow! Celebrating the winter season was the end result of my daughter’s school’s attempt at what used to be called a Christmas show. As I sat in the auditorium on an 80-degree, Southern California day, listening to an entire student body sing about snowballs, I had to ask myself, “Is the lowest common denominator of Los Angeles’ collective humanity a weather condition not even shared by the majority of us living in this geography?” I guess the two songs about “giving” and “friends” were nice, but are these virtues the result of an atmospheric condition only available around the time of the winter solstice? Do we sing songs on the vernal equinox?

Call me old-fashioned, but how can songs that actually celebrate the cultures of thousands of years of Western civilization really be so offensive as to bring us to this point? We are witnessing the nihilistic, Orwellian fruits of secularism carried under the banner of tolerance. I suppose for constitutional reasons these faiths can’t be expressed in a public forum. If that is so, let’s dispense with this charade of a winter season celebration, bow to the secular realization that snow is not a binding force for good and get on with educating our kids about why Johnny has two daddies.

Charles Winning

West Hills

*

The LAUSD deserves an A+ for the way it deals with cultural diversity at the holiday season. My family and I have lived a lot of places. When we lived in Iowa City, schools allowed holiday parties, as long as they included no hint of religion -- no Santa-shaped cookies, no menorah candles and no singing of “Silent Night.” When we moved to California, my kindergartner dressed as a dreidel in her holiday program. Other children were dressed as Christmas trees and as fruit and corn from the Kwanzaa harvest. This remains my fondest holiday-program memory.

Now we are in Virginia, where a state-mandated “In God We Trust” plaque hangs in every school entrance and the daily pledge is followed by a moment of silence. It’s no surprise that Christianity permeates the holiday season.

While Iowa City chose to steer clear of anything that could potentially offend anyone, Virginia’s single-minded focus does not allow students to escape Christianity. The LAUSD has the best idea. Let’s learn about everyone’s cultural background. Let’s make the world a bit smaller. Let’s teach our kindergartners about dreidels and corn stalks and Santa Claus. Gosh, I miss that.

Beckie Weinheimer

Leesburg, Va.