I oppose. Kids get out of school too late in June as it is

While I definitely believe that all cultures and religions should be equally respected, I would like to correct Ms. Arni's statement regarding other students being able to celebrate their holidays and not having to make up homework. My son is at Ridge and there was indeed homework assigned before the Jewish holidays. Among other assignments, he had a Power Point (partner project) which was due the evening of Rosh Hashanah via electronic submission. If my son had chosen to defer the assignment, it would have been due one day later. The same was always true when my children had to take the day off from school when the school calendar included only one day for our High Holy Days. It is going to be a very difficult job for the BOE to please everyone, but I applaud them for trying.

Diwali is a cultural holiday in India. Much like our Thanksgiving. Do they celebrate and and take time off of school for US Thanksgiving in India.

The Jewish High Holy Days are religious holidays. Request was ridiculous.

Actually, if we think about it, there are a lot of things that don' make sense and often we deal with the outcomes of political pressure and/or power.

For instance, let's look at a christian holiday that allows an off day from school. Why do non christians get the day off? For what?

Similarly, why do Christian students get an off day on Jewish holidays? For what?

Why do Indians or other Asians do not get they holidays recognized in the school calender?

Simple. Because to the later comes, the bones.

If the Asians are better organized and raise hell till the end of time, that the first step toward getting what they want. Until then, Asians are in the back seat.

Ain't that the truth? Ain't that the truth as far as anything else is concerned? If the wheel is not squeaky enough, you are not going anywhere.

Why don't we go back to the old way where you were allowed to take a day off of school to celebrate a holiday as an escused absence? The Bernards Township schools do a wonderful job of teaching all students the importance of all holidays and traditions celebrated by many diverse groups. I don't see the need to give a day off for every group's holiday. In fact having a mid winter break and a spring break is just as ridiculous too. One week off during the winter/spring session is more than sufficient. In our efforts to be politically correct and accomodate everyone we are losing site of what is most important, what is best for our children's education, and I don't believe it intreprets into days off to celebrate other people's cultures or so that parents can use their beach houses or time share.

Agree that it is not possible to appease every single religous minority group. Here is what they should do - declare holidays for Thanksgiving and Christmas as they are 'national' holidays. Although Christmas is supposed to be a religious holiday, is celebrated by other religious groups in terms of exchanging gifts meeting with family and having a feast. All other religious holidays should be given an honorary mention over the PA system in the schools, and discussed in social studies in the lower grades.

The Holiday they are asking for is not religious. It is a cultural holiday.

Hey BRER, huh or duh! Ed 101, come to a Country, learn its Culture. Ever notice Christmas a Federal Holiday? No need to apologize.

If we were going to celebrate every immigrants cultural holidays, kids would be in 12 months a year. Every country has these days, they are celebrated in that country.

Canadian Thanksgiving this week. Maybe the schools should shut down. I bet there are Canadians at Bernards High.

I'm with cayman57. Enough already with the PC cultural sensitivity. When I moved here, BR did not have a day off for MLK day or Jewish holidays. I was fine with that because a day off from school does not equal respect for the day. Maybe incorporate some teaching about the importance of the day into the lesson plan.

Or not! How about this - observe your cultural and religious traditions at home. How did it come to be that schools have to teach cultural sensitivity, anti-bullying, character building, and on and on? What is a parent's role? I taught my kids how to be good, kind people and responsible citizens. I sent them to school to learn academics. I am so glad my kids are out of the public schools in this town. If I had little ones now, I'd send them to private schools.

Please remember this is a story about a requested day off from school, not the validity of someone's culture or religion. The issue is how Bernards Township should structure future school calendars to accommodate the community, and to also meet state requirements for required number of school days.

Mr./Mrs./Ms. Cayman57 - although I am not in favor of the request made for a holiday on the occasion of Diwali or any other religious festival and I would like to point out that I am not hindu either - I would like to correct your ignorance - Diwali is the main Religious Holiday for Hindus. In fact ask any of them and they will explain to you how important it is to their religion. I, for one agree with others on the forum that an excused holiday works fine - as we get get more diverse as a community, giving a day off for each of our important days is not feasible. An excused holiday works well enough - at this rate we are going to end up spending more days off than on !

Thank you for correcting me. The article however did say cultural not religious.

We have more than enough days off, we don't need any more. If we add this one remove another one.

Patches: I'm switching over to Bernardsville news . Appears you have a double standard what comments you do/don't allow to post