Index IntroductionReasons This is a problemLaws related to holidays in public schoolsPossible solutionsConclusionIntroductionThis research paper is about the inequality of having only Christmas Day as a mandatory day off from school in schools public across the country. In it I will address the legal status of not attending school only on Christmas, as well as the legal status of celebrating religious holidays in public schools. I will also discuss a couple of possible solutions to this problem and the pros and cons of each solution. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Every year, across the country, students of all ages look forward to free time to spend with their friends and family during the Christmas season. But what about students of other religions who celebrate different holidays like Hanukkah or Diwali? In most public schools, the only mandatory day off from school for a religious holiday is Christmas Day. But important Jewish, Hindu, or Islamic holidays are often spent by students sitting in class listening to a teacher instead of acknowledging their heritage or spending quality time with friends or family as they should. The government should require schools to provide holidays for important holidays of religions other than Christianity. Reasons why this is a problem Having only Christian holidays as mandatory days off is obviously a problem because it makes it seem to students of other religions that their religion doesn't matter or is inferior to Christianity, which is not true. It creates a sense of inequality for students who follow less recognized religions and this is negative because it not only demeans these students, but it could also create a feeling of hostility or even conflicts and arguments between groups of students who do not follow the same religion and this seems very medieval. But it also poses a couple of other problems. One of these problems is that it forces, for example, Jewish students to choose whether to skip school for Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year which runs from September 29 to October 1 during which time most public schools are still open, for respect their religion but risk missing important information in class or whether they should go to school. Students of other religions are forced to choose whether to value education or religion and this should not happen. Holiday Laws in Public Schools Under the First Amendment, interrupting school for any religious holiday, including Christmas, is unconstitutional. According to Charles Haynes, director of the Newseum Institute's Center for Religious Freedom, the only reason people don't go to school on Christmas Day is that "The problem is that Christian holidays like Christmas have been put on the calendar when they are public schools were founded by Christians." In fact, public schools shouldn't even put up Christmas decorations or anything like that at Christmas time, but they can teach the history of the holiday as long as it doesn't become too religiously biased. Public schools may teach the history of any religious holiday as long as it is deemed appropriate by someone responsible for managing the curriculum and the teaching of the lesson is not for religious reasons. Alternatively, if a religious holiday deemed appropriate is being taught and a student decides they do not want to take part in the learning because they believe it is against their religion or they simply do not want to learn it, they canask to be excused from the lesson and the teacher must oblige. This is even true for religions that many consider secular and may be taught in public schools, such as Halloween or Valentine's Day, and which some believe actually have religious roots. Being excused for holidays like Halloween and Valentine's Day is much more common in school elementary school, where parties and other celebrations are often organized for these occasions. These practices are permitted, but courts have made clear that this does not mean that schools are free to teach whatever they want about religion and that students simply ask to be excused if they feel uncomfortable. Public schools must grant an excused absence to any student who does not show up to school for any religious reason, but the student is still required to make up any tests or quizzes he or she misses and may miss important class discussions or insights from the teacher. 'teacher. Schools often cancel school on a religious holiday if many students will be absent because of it and it would seem pointless to have school. Possible solutions One solution to this problem is to simply exclude all important holidays for each religion from school and this would solve the problem immediately but would also create a couple more. Firstly, having so many days off from school would lengthen the length of the school year to cover all the information required in the curriculum and many teachers and students would surely be very unhappy to see their summer holidays shortened. Another question is who would do it. decide what is considered an important holiday or not. For example, schools would certainly give students a day off on holidays like Hanukkah, Diwali, Eid and Chinese Lunar New Year, but would they also cancel school on a holiday like National Bagel Day on January 15? Maybe it's not something that ridiculous, but there would definitely be conflicts over which holidays are important enough to cancel school and which are not. Unfortunately, National Bagel Day probably wouldn't count because it's pretty pointless. Another idea from a One solution to this problem would be for students to declare their religion at the beginning of the school year and then have days off during all major holidays. So students of different religions would have different breaks. Obviously there are many problems with this solution. The first and most obvious is that this is fundamentally about religious segregation, and as we have learned from history, this is never a good thing. Another problem with this solution is that it would be more difficult for children to make friends with other children of different religions because their breaks from school would occur at different times of the year. In this scenario, if there was a Catholic boy whose best friend was Islamic, their time off from school would be different and they would rarely have time to socialize with each other. Another possible disadvantage of this solution is that if children were given the opportunity to choose which religion to follow, many students would simply lie and say that they follow whichever religion they have more free time from school and this would not be good because this only means teaching children . that religion isn't important at all when in reality it should be something everyone respects. A third possible solution to the problem here is to make it fair and not have holidays for any religious holidays in public schools, not even Christmas. In this scenario, there could be private schools that celebrate the religious holidays of their own religion and no others, but public schools would simply not be allowed to celebrate or.