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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsNYC principal won't let kindergarteners sing 'God Bless the USA' at graduation
Last edited Fri Jun 15, 2012, 12:12 PM - Edit history (1)
NYC Educators Back Ban on Patriotic SongThe New York City Board of Education is defending a principal who banned the song God Bless the USA from being performed at a kindergarten graduation ceremony reportedly because it might offend other cultures.
Greta Hawkins, the principal of the Edna Cohen School in Coney Island, came under fire from parents after she instructed teachers to remove the song from the upcoming program. Staffers at the school told the New York Post that Hawkins was afraid the song might offend other cultures.
A spokesperson for the Dept. of Education released a statement to Fox News Radio indicating the song was pulled because the principal felt the lyrics were not age appropriate for a kindergarten moving up ceremony.
The spokesperson also noted that students recite the Pledge of Allegiance and sing America the Beautiful at the start of every school day.
Instead of performing God Bless the USA, students will be performing Baby, a Justin Bieber song about teenage romance.
more . . . http://radio.foxnews.com/toddstarnes/top-stories/nyc-educators-back-ban-on-patriotic-song.html
Update: http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=811837
Thank you RZM!
randome
(34,845 posts)But the reality is that she's an uptight asshole who should be smart enough to finesse this without making a public spectacle out of herself or her school.
Stupid patriotism and absurd lyrics aside...it's just a song. Now whether the parents made enough of a stink about this without Fox News' help is another subject.
obamanut2012
(26,142 posts)And, to children of non-Abrahamic faiths, or of no faiths, it is more than just a song. It is also a public school.
randome
(34,845 posts)There is likely no song that will please everyone so why make an issue of it? Maybe there was a reason for making an issue of it but I didn't see one in the article.
obamanut2012
(26,142 posts)However, as dumb and random as that would have been, why should non-Christians/Jews/Muslims have to sit through a religious song? If a patriotic song must be performed, the National Anthem is fine.
randome
(34,845 posts)Eh. Maybe I'm just digging myself in deeper here. Oh well.
hifiguy
(33,688 posts)3...2...1...
Glad to see the Board is backing the principal.
snooper2
(30,151 posts)"Gawd Bless the USA" or "Baby"...
I really don't, either one could be used as torture
proud2BlibKansan
(96,793 posts)RC
(25,592 posts)What is wrong with waiting till High School, where at least some of them will have a clue by?
proud2BlibKansan
(96,793 posts)I'm one of the few teachers who thinks this is ridiculous.
malthaussen
(17,217 posts)Doing away with "cap and gown graduations for elementary school" was one of Linus's planks when he ran for class president. I'm sure ol' Charlie would think Kindergarten Graduation was even sillier.
In the urge to create "memories" for our children (or are they for us, eh?), we seem to have forgotten that if all events are transcendent, none are.
-- Mal
MightyOkie
(68 posts)The rest of the world thinks we are nuts giving out outlandish awards to our kids everytime they turn around.
alcibiades_mystery
(36,437 posts)Indeed, even in the article, it's called a "moving up ceremony." I went to my daughter's on Wednesday, and it was just called a kindergarten celebration. They do not receive diplomas, and it was explicitly never referred to as a graduation.
Neither are these new. I had a kindergarten "celebration" or moving up ceremony when I completed kindergarten in a NYC public school...in 1979.
It's just an opportunity for the kindergartners to have a nice year-end assembly and recognize a few for good performance (spelling bee, attendance awards) and the like. I see nothing wrong with it. Remember, for kindergarteners, this is perhaps the first time through the school rhythm - they are being acclimated to the idea of summer break, the fact that they may be in different classes next year, and all that. Very obviously, elementary school educators have decided this is a good idea - across the country and for quite some time. I'm not in primary education at that age level, so I really don't have the expertise to judge that decision.
proud2BlibKansan
(96,793 posts)Caps and gowns and diplomas.
You're right about teachers liking this. I'm one of the few who thinks it's ridiculous.
alcibiades_mystery
(36,437 posts)Kindergarteners get a sense of completion. For those who didn't attend pre-school, it might be their first of the kind.
You keep saying it's ridiculous, but you don't say why.
They actually had a cap and gown "graduation" from my daughter's Montessori pre-school. I agree that the whole exercise is odd. But the kindergarten "celebration" seemed very deliberately to not be a graduation. Indeed, it seemed so deliberately not a graduation, that I understood there to be some pedagogical point being made about that. And if that's the case, I'm not entirely convinced that there are 'graduations' with cap and gowns and diplomas on any large scale.
proud2BlibKansan
(96,793 posts)And I'm talking about the cap and gown diploma ceremonies. They are very popular here.
alcibiades_mystery
(36,437 posts)If you say so.
Like I said, I think the cap and gown graduations are somewhat odd for kindergarten, but I'd still get the logic of it as training students in school rhythms and customs. The celebration bit works better, in that it does the same without inflating the "accomplishment.' I'll admit that i was snarking a bit at my daughter's ceremony (this was TWO days ago), wondering about the failure and drop out rate for kindergarten, etc. I see your point there, for sure.
But the article in the OP was not a graduation. I think most of them aren't. Whether they are by you, I don't know.
NoPasaran
(17,291 posts)proud2BlibKansan
(96,793 posts)One year one of my co-workers made that suggestion for our 5th grade graduation.
vaberella
(24,634 posts)We had a graduation. I remember it being named graduation. No cap and gown, but were given a certificate. My cousin did have a graduation in NY Catholic school for kindergarten with cap and gown.
alcibiades_mystery
(36,437 posts)Edward hart School
cheers, yo.
a_m
vaberella
(24,634 posts)The idea is that you're moving from a fairly non-academic world to one that is academic. No more nap time or extended play times.
alcibiades_mystery
(36,437 posts)Nap time?
Not anymore, sister.
Extended play time?
Don't think so.
My six year old just completed kindergarten in CPS. They don't nap, trust me.
vaberella
(24,634 posts)Last I heard...they did do that. Maybe the school your daughter goes to changed things. But then again this was a Catholic school and not a public school.
alcibiades_mystery
(36,437 posts)FSogol
(45,529 posts)kestrel91316
(51,666 posts)genuine achievements.
A waste of limited resources, IMHO, to do this with 6-yr-olds. Let them have a last day of school party. It will be less stressful for them.
proud2BlibKansan
(96,793 posts)It's all part of the Cult of the Child that's become so prevalent among parents today. My two sons (now in teens) went to one public elementary school, and it was the same thing - all reward and punish Pavlovian attempts to shape behavior into little citizen-bots. Constant pestering from the school and other parents (including, eventually, my ex) to involve them in every activity - a sport, play-group, music lessons. There was always a message or an email trying to schedule carpools and babysitting and it's only $30 and... and... everyone seemed to walk to TALK and TALK and TALK about everything in minute detail. Jesus Christ! 3 o'clock? Sure. Babysitting? Fine. $30? Nah. Are we done now? Can we get back to reading or homework or farting around? Every generation seems to think they're doing it all for the first time. Well, we got here somehow, and that somehow was parenting. It can come as naturally as shitting, when one just loves and defends one's kids, every day.
Now, teh boys are in a public charter with an outward bound type program, and the end of term 'passage' means something to them, not me - they always come back chapped head to toe, and some kid always has to be evac'd on horseback from the deep wilderness for some minor injury... and with puffed up chests. They start these in 2nd grade, and the older kids watch out for the younger and really get attached. It's great to witness. So in the end, their passage means something to THEM, in part because it's a 10-day survival course and they survived, and in part because they create their own subculture in the process.
Meh. Most kids are great. Most teachers, too. It's most parents and the school administrators who kiss parent ass that I can't stand.
vaberella
(24,634 posts)By the way she stopped the Bieber one...so that's not worth mentioning.
obamanut2012
(26,142 posts)RZM
(8,556 posts)Although that seemed to be a hasty attempt at damage control in the face of all this publicity.
http://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2012/06/13/No-Greenwood-Bieber-for-kindergarten/UPI-13971339618482/
The principal was already something of a controversial figure before this. She has publicly referred to the school as 'racist' and refuses to join in the pledge of allegiance due to religious reasons (she's a Jehovah's Witness).
proud2BlibKansan
(96,793 posts)4th law of robotics
(6,801 posts)obamanut2012
(26,142 posts)ESPECIALLY in NYC.
The Bieber song, however, is a bit random.
lapislzi
(5,762 posts)I absolutely agree that the "God Bless..." song is grossly inappropriate. But to replace it with...?
I remember kindergarten, and I remember belting out "This Land Is Your Land" with all the fervor in my little five-year-old soul. I still think that should be our national anthem.
sakabatou
(42,176 posts)Nye Bevan
(25,406 posts)This school is very, very lucky to have such a wonderful person as its principal.
RZM
(8,556 posts)Instead of saying:
'I don't care what anybody's color is, I'm going to run this shit'
She says:
'Look at me! Race! FTW!'
I went to an 'inner city' school as a child and I watched these racial politics play out. They never serve the students. It's always about the administrator trying to claim some sort of racial throne so that they will be respected and obeyed on racial grounds. It's fucking bullshit.
Stop worrying about the racial politics and start worrying about the kids. Do that and there's no time for grandstanding, racial or otherwise.
cherokeeprogressive
(24,853 posts)oberliner
(58,724 posts)Anyone who has ever considered a career in school administration, and paid attention to the recent experiences of Greta Hawkins, must surely be wondering whether tending a tollbooth on the George Washington Bridge would secure greater karmic rewards. Since September 2009, Ms. Hawkins, a former French teacher who worked in the New York City school system for 18 years, has served as the principal of Public School 90, an elementary school in Coney Island, Brooklyn, where attacks against her have had an eerie constancy.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/17/nyregion/greta-hawkins-a-principal-trampled-in-the-rush-to-vilify.html