No valentines day in school

My daughter came home from schhol today with a letter from the pricipal stating that the school was no longer going to allow the classes to have a valentines day party. She went on the write that this was to be sensitive to those in the class who did not celebrate valentines day.

Ok, I know there was a St Valentine, but does anyone really think for Valentines day as a religous holiday? This is getting out of hand, they are taking a long long tradition away from the children just so 1 or 2 kids in the school dont feel left out. I say let those couple kids STAY HOME that day are go to the library during the party.

This is begining to not feel like America.

Beau, you totally missed the bus on this one, man. We hashed out a similar issue in the Banning Christmas thread. Personally, I see this as an opportunity for children of other faiths to learn tolerance toward the diversity of religions in the US. Unfortunately, the ACLU isn't concerned with all of that.


-Kiamat Dusk
WASP...sorta

Wow, that's nuts!

Valentine's Day is even further from religion than Christmas is, if you can believe it ...

I always loved Valentine's Day; I always thought I'd get some surprise Valentine from someone great. Never did, but the little tickle in my stomach was worth it Even kids know that V-Day is all about receiving little gifts than about ... worshipping an obscure saint.

If I were you I'd write to the school board.

You know usually i dont speak out on these subject but this one i will. If it was me i would put my children in a diff school.. plain and simple. I remember valentines day in school.. it was cool beans.. nothing like exchanging valentines day cards and candy. Some of my teachers even let us take time to make our own, i know i enjoyed it then and im sure kids do to. This is poop. take them out of school or better yet everything they do send in a letter to the school board asking them to stop doing it. Like bookfairs you know where they sell those chinsey schoolastic books for premium prices? I would definantly call them and voice how offended i was that my children had to be subjected to such things when it is heavily against my religion to buy schoolastic books from school book fairs.. see i can be just as ridiculous as they can.


I also have a little story for you guys just to show you how quick the times change, when i was in 4th grade studying slavery and such. The teacher came in one day and was being all evil and told half the classroom to stand up when we did they came around and put a red sticker on our forehead all throught the day we had to stand up for periods of time we had to get lunch after the people that didnt have a red dot and then we lost our red dot and the ones that got to sit down all day and got treats and such had to go through our pain. At the end of the day the teacher concluded the lesson with now you have a tiny tiny tiny idea of how it feels to be discriminated against... and i hate to say it but i think that was one of the best lessons i could have ever gone through.. i learned that it doesnt feel good to be the guy that gets called out or that gets treated like poop when others are treated great. The moral of the story is that if that was to happen these days in school they would have parents wanting to burn the place down.. its getting to the point that everyone is going to have to be mindless and ununique because they will get in trouble to show there thoughts on things..

the final point: Let your kids stay home that day and make a mess with glue,construction paper and such and make you guys some valentines day cards.

... And then mail them to that principal's home with a note telling her to pull the stick out of her ass.

Did it occur to you that it isn't being banned for any religious reasons, but is being banned because it's a painful holiday for kids with no boyfriend or girlfriend?

Word.

LOL YOUR KIDDING?! at that age? beau what grade are they in?

you know i do remember when i was in 5th grade and the love of my life the girl i was to marry pulled my hair and tried to gouge my eyes out.. i too am now tramatized on the subject of v************

It sounds like it's an elementary school, because I don't know of any high schools that really have "Valentine's Day parties." In which case even if you did have a boyfriend/girlfriend it's not going to be serious.

When I was a child and we had Valentine's Day parties, we made Valentines for everyone in the classroom. Sure, we might have made more "special" ones for our "special" friends, but simply banning Valentine's Day parties because some kids *might* not get Valentines is silly in my opinion.

Found on the net, seems like a good place for it...

People over 35 should be dead. Here's why:

According to today's regulators and bureaucrats, those of us who were kids in the 40's, 50's, 60's, or even maybe the early 70's probably shouldn't have survived.
Our baby cribs were covered with bright colored lead-based paint.
We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets, ... and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets. (Not to mention the risks we took hitchhiking.)
As children, we would ride in cars with no seatbelts or air bags.
Riding in the back of a pickup truck on a warm day was always a special treat.
We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle. Horrors!
We ate cupcakes, bread and butter, and drank soda pop with sugar in it, but we were never overweight because we were always outside playing.
We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle, and no one actually died from this.
We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then rode down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes.
After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.
We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the street lights came on.
No one was able to reach us all day. NO CELL PHONES!!!!! U n t h i n k a b l e !
We did not have Playstations, Nintendo 64, X-Boxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on cable, video tape movies, DVD's, surround sound, personal cell phones, personal computers, or Internet chat rooms.
We had friends!
We went outside and found them.
We played dodge ball, and sometimes, the ball would really hurt.
We fell out of trees, got cut and broke bones and teeth, and there were no lawsuits from these accidents. They were accidents. No one was to blame but us. Remember accidents?
We had fights and punched each other and got black and blue and learned to get over it.
We made up games with sticks and tennis balls and ate worms, and although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes, nor did the worms live inside us forever.
We rode bikes or walked to a friend's home and knocked on the door, or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them.
Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment!
Some students weren't as smart as others, so they failed a grade and were held back to repeat the same grade. Horrors!
Tests were not adjusted for any reason. Our actions were our own. Consequences were expected.
The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke a law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law.
Imagine that!
This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers and problem solvers and inventors, ever.
The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.
We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all.
Congratulations...so far...so good!
Please pass this on to others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before lawyers and government regulated our lives, for our own good !!!!!

Oh if you're talking about elementary school, then there shouldn't be any problem. I do remember that the rule was you had to give one to everyone in the class if you gave any at all.

Now, in junior high and high school... I think that valentines day isn't the problem there, they should ban having boyfriends and girlfriends and get at the root cause

"Valentine’s Day originated way back in the 3rd century. Saint Valentine was a priest in Rome during the reign of Emperor Claudius II. It seems the Emperor was having trouble recruiting members for his army because the men didn’t want to leave their wives and children for the long military expeditions which would last for months and even years. Claudius then decided that banning marriages in Rome would solve this problem. The Emperor had Valentine condemned to death for defying his order and marrying couples in secret.

As Valentine awaited execution, his admirers would come to the jail bearing notes of support and flowers. As luck would have it, his most ardent admirer turned out to be the daughter of the prison guard. She would visit him for hours. The day of his execution, February 14 in the year 269 AD, Valentine wrote her a note expressing his gratitude for her love, support, and friendship and signed it "Love from our Valentine"."


I didnt know the history of valentines day - so i looked it up and thought id share ... I think banning everything that might make a few people feel bad just ends up hurting more people in the long run.

Here's a radical thought. Maybe they feel it would be a better use of the kids time to, oh... I dunno... maybe teach them to read or something!

dont you think in elementary school you learn more useful things like how not to be mean to your friends and true values of life? i think it all starts in elementary school.. you cant tell me one day makes a differance.

Yep, those are good things. Now tell me how exactly a holiday based around romance and sex and sugar helps elementary school kids achieve those goals?

I would agree Chip, however, I must sadly admit that our educational system is in dire straits and eliminating an hour or two of Valentine's festivities isn't going to fix it.

I think they need to stop the thought process whereby people's hurt feelings dictate what the rules will be. We are raising a nation of wimps and teaching them that litigation at the drop of a hat is the way to deal with issues.

Minor sidetrack: Get rid of candy and soda in the classroom. It makes me crazy. We weren't even allowed to chew gum because it was distracting. They wonder why the kids are overweight, hyper or ADD. This permissive environment that has emerged in the past 10 to 15 years, really boggles my mind. Some kids are growing up having never understood what the word "no" really means.

Great post btw Loki. It pretty much sums it up.

I'm tossing my coin in with Kiamat and Loki on this one. I work for the School Board and you wouldn't BELIEVE the idiotic things teachers and principals come up with in the name of promoting racial/disabled/sexual preference tolerance. Abolishing the celebration of Valentines day in schools is just plain rediculous. You gotta wonder where and when all this politically correct, 'sensitivity' nonsense is going to stop. We're turning into a population of whiny, oversensitive, emo, schmoos (no offense to the schmoos out there.)

Our schools aren't there to teach kids how to give out Valentines. They are to teach important skills that can be useful in adult life. As far as I'm concerned, teaching about the history and myths associated with holidays is fine in school, but celebrating any of them, other than to have days off for designated holidays, has no place in school.

Exactly, Vanentines day was great when you were the person with a Valentine in your little bag taped to your desk.

Though I do not believe that it is prudent on behalf of educators to shield children from this disappointment. It's part of life and the sooner they learn it, the better.

The same applies to the joy of finding even one Valentine in your bag. Being an outcast in school, I still have the one Valentine from fourth grade that a sweet and brave young man named Ron put in my bag. It's in my scrap book, it meant that much to me.

I think we fail to see that while shielding our children from the pain of rejection, we also deprive them of the joy of acceptance.

What about the ultimate life skills? like getting along with others? communicating with others? working well with others? having fun with others?

All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten

All I really need to know about how to live and what to do and how to be I
learned in kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate school
mountain, but there in the sandpile at Sunday School. These are the things
I learned:

Share everything.
Play fair.
Don't hit people.
Put things back where you found them.
Clean up your own mess.
Don't take things that aren't yours.
Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody.
Wash your hands before you eat.
Flush.
Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.
Live a balanced life--learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing
and dance and play and work every day some.
Take a nap every afternoon.
When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands, and
stick together.
Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the Styrofoam cup: The
roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but
we are all like that.
Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the
Styrofoam cup--they all die. So do we.
And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you
learned--the biggest word of all--LOOK.

Everything you need to know is in there somewhere. The Golden Rule and love
and basic sanitation. Ecology and politics and equality and sane living.

Take any one of those items and extrapolate it into sophisticated adult
terms and apply it to your family life or your work or your government or
your world and it holds true and clear and firm. Think what a better world
it would be if we all--the whole world--had cookies and milk about three
o'clock every afternoon and then lay down with our blankies for a nap. Or
if all governments had as a basic policy to always put things back where
they found them and to clean up their own mess.

And it is still true, no matter how old you are-- when you go out into the
world, it is best to hold hands and stick together.

--Robert Fulghum

Thanks for my new sig, billy

Yes, well it's a shame that the numbers don't get any better each time they ban something else in school. I wish that it were being banned in the name of better education rather than someone's crusade.

Is recess time is unnecessary too?

Things like Valentine's Day, or what have you, break up the monotony of a daily routine. That means keeping kids who already have a widespread boredom issue interested and involved IMHO.

Wow that’s crazy. The world has just gone nuts.
I thought Valentines Day was a great day for crafts and getting to know each other better and the cookies and cupcakes where good to lol

Hmm... that sounds vaguely familiar... did you go to school in New York?

BTW, I love Robert Fulghum! I think everybody should read at least *All I need to know...* because it holds so much wisdom in it's simplicity, heck just reading about Robert Fulghum inspires you and makes you want to go out there and do stuff!!

Leilany
Who tried to kill some kid in school because he said he'd marry her

I hear what you're saying Nolan, but all of those things can be accomplished without the need for celebrating holidays in school. I agree that that our education system, needs to pay teachers better, while at the same time hold them to far higher standards.

Any teacher has the instant ability to break the monotony of school on any given day. They have the ability to make learning fun and creative. They just don't exercise that choice very often. It's a shame.

As far as kids learning to interact with others, you certainly don't need a holiday to teach those skills.