It's a War on Christmas, Charlie Brown

Um, you might want to read that link a little more carefully:

• Autumn or Fall Break - Usually lasts for one week in October (in the week of Columbus Day). See Columbus Day above.

 

One thing that does bother me is the practice by schools in at last parts of New York where Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah are days off. I don't think this is appropriate, either. I don't think schools should be closed for any religious holiday.

Then again, maybe that is because none of the schools I went to had this practice. Sure, we were allowed to take those as excused days off, but we still had work to make up.

 

It varies from state to state. Some places, I think, do it closer to Thanksgiving and others do it at the end of the first marking period. The latter splits the year neatly into quarters -- an October break, the Christmas/holiday/winter break, spring break at the end of marking period No. 3, and then the end of the year.
But it is a thing. You're either trolling, being sarcastic and it's not coming through, or being willfully ignorant to say otherwise.

 

I grew up in New Jersey, and for a few years in high school we got Rosh Hashanah off. My birthday is in late September, so a few times it fell on my birthday and I got it off, which was awesome. Almost made up for having sing "Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel" and "Oh Hanukah" during the holiday plays in elementary school.
Oh yeah, we had to do that. We had a big singing thing where all the kids in fourth and fifth grade got on stage to perform Christmas and Hanukah songs. I hated it -- because I didn't like to sing, not because of the content. This was about 30 years ago. Today, the ACLU would have shut that fascist public school down.
We also learned some of the basics about Islam throughout my middle and high school history classes. We didn't read the Koran, we were just taught about the five pillars and some of the history of Mohammad, who was a major historical figure as well as a religious one.
You know what? It didn't radicalize me. It didn't turn me. it might have even helped on some level to be familiar with it.
Teaching religion in schools -- all major religions -- is not a bad thing. Like it or not, it's a major part of life that has shaped our world and shouldn't be ignored. Teaching it is actually a good thing, so long as the teachers can be professionals and teach it in a historical context and provide each one's nuts and bolts without proselytizing.

 

That last part is where we run into problems. I have no problem with a balanced teaching of religion as part of social studies classes. Understanding what religion is and what part it played in the past and what part it plays now is important.

Sadly, when you go that route, it tends to not stay balanced. Also, there is a difference between teaching about religion and observing it by having a day off.

 

I walked into a Western Civ class college the first day of the semester and the teacher said "Ok, we're going to be studying the Bible, but this ain't Bible Study, everybody understand the difference?"

Always loved that line.

 

Tony, you failed at one of the basic tasks a human needs to accomplish. No surprise you you don't much about what goes on in schools.

 

Very NSFW for lots of language. But, this would make a good alternative school play.

 

Jesus is Laughing at this Whole Political Correctness Debate, Not with it, Charlie Brown.

 

When it's one or two days and/or not used by more than a handful of district, you can't say "fall break" is any major part of the cultural lexicon. Most people have never heard of it.

 

Respectfully, it is not a thing in the great majority of the country. And where it is, it's more like two days off rather than the full week of spring break and the nearly two weeks of Christmas break.

And for it to actually make sense, winter (actually, Christmas) break should come after the semester ends, but that would mean around the third week of January for nearly every public school. But "winter" break always occurs to include Christmas and New Year's Days. I'd love to see a school district gutsy enough to keep schools open through Christmas and New Year's Days and schedule their "winter" break in January. I'd at least respect their consistency.

 

The separation of church and state is more than political correctness. Sadly, that point has escaped you and others.