Halloween at school - A do or a don't?

by Christina Sbarro (Subscribe to Christina Sbarro's posts) Oct 2nd 2008 8:00AM

Categories: Preschoolers, Kids 5-7, Kids 8-11, Holidays, Education

Today we changed the calendar in our classroom. A brand new month with all its possibilities. October, with it's red maple leaves, fat pumpkins and decidedly chilly weather. But while I look forward to October because it is the pinnacle of my favorite season, when the hills turn vermilion and yellow, and the first twinge of wood smoke is in the air, the children love it for a different reason entirely. Halloween.

For children, at least all children who attend mainstream public schools, Halloween is at the zenith of all things adored: fantasy, candy, mystery, and the possibility of being afraid but not too afraid. Already they've been talking about their costumes for weeks, and with the turning of the calendar, we've aquired a new classroom routine: counting down the days.

Today 29, tomorrow 28. And they're pestering me, "Can we have a Halloween party, PULEEEZE?"

As a teacher in a public school I've always sort of dragged my feet on this one. I've let the kids share their excitement, and swap stories about what they're planning to wear for the big night, but I've kind of tried to stay away from having a full blown party in our classroom... because, well, isn't it somehow blurring the separation of church and state?

Almost every year I've had at least one child whose family doesn't celebrate Halloween. And granted, in its current form, decidedly one of the least denominational holidays hyped by the media. Yet it is still a holiday with religious origins, and parents who don't celebrate the holiday have every right to expect that it won't be foisted on their kid at school-right?

Or maybe kids should just be allowed to be kids at school-regardless of what their parents believe? Perhaps they should be allowed to soak up their classmate's excitement and engage in a full-blown Halloween party with sticky popcorn balls and freaky costumes even if their parents don't let them dress up or engage in such activities at home. Forget the Day Of the Dead for a second. The only thing kids care about is the candy anyway. Right?

What do you think? Should kids be allowed to celebrate Halloween in school-or should schools skip such festivities all together?

Comments (28)

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

Bob 10-02-2008 @ 8:04AM

Im a teacher, and my kids always love it. Doing it again this year.

Greetz Bob

http://www.dignova.com

Karen 10-02-2008 @ 9:09AM

I do not see this as a church and state issue at all. There is always someone who doesn't celebrate something for some kind of reason. There are some religious people who object to Halloween (although I've noticed a trend back from the extreme revolt against it), but it isn't celebrated as a religious holiday.

But, I do think we should limit parties in the classroom. I previously taught in a private school, and since I've been in the public schools I am shocked at the number of classroom interruptions. Add to that a push with the curriculum and most children I see are taking too much work home.

I'm all for sending home a parent generated goody bag, and for sharing stories, or incorporating Halloween into writing assignments, etc, but I think parties are a huge waste of classroom time.

I'm aware of one teacher that does not have a party, but she has Halloween Day where everything is Halloween reltated. Math, reading, etc. During this time there are opportunities for children to accumulate candy, but the class time is spent LEARNING. I would much prefer all teachers handle all holidays this way and leave the parties, simulated trick or treating, crafts, etc. to me. Don't get me wrong, there is learning value in music, art, etc. so I'm not saying do away with those things, just that the purpose should be to learn something, not just doing something fun for the sake of a party.

mikki 10-02-2008 @ 10:26AM

i understand your point, and i think it's extremely relevant in regards to higher education such as middle school or high school. but these are KIDS - they should have some fun while they can. Besides, how well do you think they'll be able to concentrate anyway on halloween? For some kids, it's their favorite holiday. Imagine being, what, 6 years old and trying to do christmas-related math on christmas eve. most kids i know would just be too excited.

Karen 10-02-2008 @ 2:04PM

I actually think the structure of the class helps kids keep in line and control their excitement.

I agree they are kids, and I didn't say anything about them not having fun. Why not just incorporate the holiday or celebration into the learning instead of suspending learning to have a party?

There is just a LOT of wasted time in schools and I don't see a reason to add to it. And Halloween is my favorite holiday of the year!

Jack 10-02-2008 @ 10:37AM

If you're going to blacklist Halloween becuase of it's religious undertone, then you must do the same for Valentine's Day and St Patrick's Day. I don't think most kids know or care that these holidays have religious history... they just like getting candy and having a reason to dress up, whether it's as a ghost for halloween or simply wearing green on St Patrick's.

LS 10-02-2008 @ 8:56AM

I say, let the kids have a party. And to be *really* controversial? TELL the kids about the history of Halloween. Let them *learn*. Just because they know that a particular holiday, be it Halloween, Christmas, or Rosh Hoshana (apologies for spelling), is based in a particular religious tradition, does NOT mean that you are encouraging, forcing, or requiring them to worship.

They might even begin to understand how different the current commercialized tradition is from the very serious beginnings.

HAHAHAHAHA.... geez, I couldn't even keep a straight face while I wrote that, because I know that right now, there are people freaking out and screaming SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE at their computers. There is a serious misunderstanding in this knee-jerk country of ours that blurs the line between learning about a religion and establishing a national religion and forcing the citizens to worship that way.

So I say.... let them have candy and fun. And tie some learning in with it... After all, they learn about Greek and Roman Mythology, don't they? Those were religions.

Debra Hamel 10-02-2008 @ 9:14AM

Halloween, as you say, is about as non-denominational as you get. Plus, I think of it as a sort of celebration of community: when else do you get different generations "taking back the neighborhood," as it were, the grandparental figures guessing kids' names at the door, the whole community, without being obliged, doing something fun for the kids in their midst. I think it's a wonderful holiday.

Save your non-celebration instead for the Chrismahannukwanza celebrations, which are offensive indeed. You can call it a "holiday" all you want, but it's still religiously based. But I bet there are decorations in the room come December, right?

Jen Henry 10-02-2008 @ 10:23PM

I totally agree with you Debra Hamel! That's the one thing my husband and I always note about Halloween. It's the only holiday where communities will interact and it's ok to knock on the door of your neighbor and say hello. All of the other holidays, Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas we spent locked in our houses with our families, shut off from our community. While family is wonderful, there's something even more wonderful about a sense of a larger community and belonging.

Debra Hamel 10-02-2008 @ 10:51PM

Thanks, Jen! I'm so with you on this. I also think it's nice that the traditions of Halloween are passed down from generation to generation in an informal yet effective way. But definitely the community aspect of Halloween makes it special. I actually find it downright moving, sometimes.

mamaloo 10-02-2008 @ 9:15AM

Halloween, as it exists presently, is not a religious event. And, if you'd like to discuss its origins, you can talk about how late fall harvest festivals and fall equinox celebrations are not only cross-denominational, cross-cultural but deeply rooted in pagan, agrarian habits stemming from Northern Europe all the way to Mayan, Incan and modern day Mexican societies.

The idea that it's a church and state issue is laughable.

Halloween is about dressing up in silly costumes and eating candy and I don't know a single kid who doesn't love it. We have a school parade every year where the kids go to school in the costumes and show them off to the rest of the classes, then there is a huge fright night with a haunted gym, a toy sale, activities and bake sales that the whole school community looks forward to and participates in.

Kieran decided he wants to be Luke Skywalker.

SKL 10-02-2008 @ 9:57AM

If any religious anything should be banned, then Halloween should be no exception.

I don't see how you can make those arguments about "just let the kids have some fun and candy" without saying the exact same words about Christmas and Easter. (And Holi and Eid for that matter.)

Jenni 10-02-2008 @ 12:16PM

School is for the learning. If, as Karen mentioned the one teacher, the activities of the day are in the theme of Halloween but it is CURRICULUM, I'm okay with it.

In my preschool classrooms, we make it a pajama day. No costumes. The children really don't notice because pajama day is an entire curriculum in itself: cooking projects (breakfast items: different types of eggs, pancakes, biscuits and gravy; which is had for lunch with a fully balanced meal, we are on a federal food program afterall); graphing things like our favorite way to eat eggs, favorite bedtime book, favorite bedtime friend; reading out favorite bedtime books (the children bring them in); etc...

We also practice wearing and seeing people wearing masks. This is a social and cognitive skill. We master our fear of the masks. We look at them and explore how they are just pretend. We practice watching each other put on the mask and taking them off so that they can see that the mask is just like a hat or other piece of clothing, it doesn't change the person (one way we illustrate this is ask the children their favorite color before they put on the mask and then again when they have the mask on). We actually practice for the entire week before Halloween so that they can get more and more comfortable (bringing in pictures of costumes that we find in the ads that seem to be popular this year).

However, all this is done as CURRICULUM. School is for learning; the parties can happen outside of school hours. I'm even okay with it being an option during their lunch break. This way, anyone who wants to participate can, and those who don't want to can go about their lunch time as usual.

Caren Halverson 10-02-2008 @ 1:33PM

I say have the party....all of this political correctness has gone wayyyy to far. When I went to school we celebrated everything. I am not Jewish, but I did learn dreidel songs and learned about Hannukah. What is the big deal about exposing kids to different things. I believe that it makes them more well rounded adults instead of sheltering them. Yes Halloween is a commercial holiday, but a really fun one. Remember when you had fun parties where you bobbed for apples, dove into piles of leaves, etc. It doesn't have to only be about candy and what is the big deal about putting on costumes??? Halloween is a time to celebrate being a kid and just having fun-there doesn't have to be any religious undertones at all.....just fun.

Sabrina 10-02-2008 @ 2:27PM

I love halloween. I do, it's my favorite holiday. Last year at my daughter's old preschool they had a Fall Party (no costumes) on halloween. The kids made craft things and they had a special snack and brought home a LOT of stuff that other parents had sent in (candy, homemade goodies, pencils, stickers, etc). My daughter was so revved up that she crashed on the couch in her costume right before trick-or-treat time and was grouchy the entire evening. As much as I love halloween, there's only so much kids can take in one day. As they get older it might be easier for them to attend parties at school with all that excitement and then come home and celebrate holidays with MORE excitement, but younger kids definitely do not need all that.

This year the new preschool has informed me that they do fall themed curriculum, but no celebration of any kind for fall or halloween. I'm kind of glad because even if she has a lot of trouble concentrating, at least she won't be totally hopped up on sugar and extra energy from the excitement of unstructured activity in a normally structured environment (also known as freedom).

I do not think halloween as it is celebrated in the mainstream now is religious at all. Mainstream halloween is about costumes, candy and scary music. Halloween is celebrated by a handful of religions nowadays, and they're not celebrating it by trick-or-treating, they're celebrating it in a real religious ceremony. The two are completely seperate. I second the suggestion of teaching the history of halloween, just as we teach the history of the Crusades (hey, it was a religious war, was it not??). Maybe if there is discussion of halloween in the classroom parents should have the option to send their child to a study hall room, similar to what is already in place for religious objection about teaching the Holocaust, dissection, evolution, sex ed, etc.

Somechik 10-02-2008 @ 5:51PM

I agree that Halloween is a teachable holiday. I also think a little bit of party/free time is a good way to burn off some of the extra energy that the anticipation of the evening's activities builds up.

I would, however, let parents know what you are planning. Growing up, I babysat for a family that held their kids out of school on Halloween for religious reasons. They were of the mind that it was a pagan holiday and didn't want their kids exposed to anything related to it.

isisaquaria 10-03-2008 @ 9:53AM

True, it is a Pagan holiday. However, the school unless thusly based--it is unlikely the kids would be exposed to the actual meaning behind it for us.

I take my kids out for the day as well--because it is a holiday for me and we celebrate as a family. My husband is a Southern Baptist and my children are exposed to both as well as Catholic from the twins(adopted) grandfather. We have decided not to sheild our children from any choice that should be what works best for them--even if it didn't work for my husband or myself.

As for school, have it for the fun...

isisaquaria 10-03-2008 @ 2:06AM

Mamaloo---I have to correct you....
Halloween is a religious holiday--albeit not usually an accepted religion by most. Wiccans/Pagans use the festival of Samhein as a time to honor the dead, not as the dead, but as the living spirits of loved ones and as guardians who hold the wisdom of mankind. It is a celebration of the afterlife where we do not die but rest and continue to learn and prepare for our next incarnation.

For the average Christian, Holloween is a commercial fantasy. For the extreme --it is a big no-no as "we don't idolize witchcraft" Most education laden with common sense, they realize the original Day of the Dead concept was nothing to be afraid of.

3Stairs (Crystal) 10-03-2008 @ 10:58AM

As one of those parents who do not celebrate Halloween, I believe it should be kept out of the school - just like Christmas and Easter should be kept out of the school.

It is each family's right and privilege to believe and celebrate in whatever way is best for them, and it is NOT the right or privilege of the public school system to allow the children "to be kids at school-regardless of what their parents believe." That approach takes parental respect and rights away from parents, and teaches the children that "anything is okay, as long as it's at school."

It is subtleties like this that help make our children today less respectful of parents and allows the government to gain more and more control over citizens. As our children are taught that the origins of holidays don't really matter and that they can celebrate anyway despite their parents' teaching, they are also taught that what their parents have taught them doesn't matter and that can do whatever the government says despite the rights and privileges granted to them by the Constitution. It is already taking place with the Patriot Act.

Our country and government were established to create freedom for our citizens to believe, worship and celebrate how they wish, and to protect those that believe differently from being proselytized by them. The public school system is a place of academic learning. The separation of church and state provides religious learning in the home, church, or church schools. The public school should be devoid of ANY religion, whether Christian, Pagan, Wiccan, Buddhist or Muslim.

I am a 32-year-old Christian that believes our Wiccan, Buddhist and Muslim citizens have just as much right to NOT be exposed to the Nativity as we have the right not to be exposed to Halloween, Buddha or Mohamed.

Leah 10-03-2008 @ 1:37PM

For "Heavens" sake, leave the kids alone. Leave our schools alone, leave our beliefs alone. Just plain leave us alone to have the same freedoms that we had many years ago. Under God, should be allowed, where it has always been. Keep up the "banning" of what you don't like, and we will be in as bad shape, as other countries whose government controls all you do. This "Political Correctness" deal, is rediculous. You either have manners, or you do not.