I am over the time wasted each year by schools ‘doing Christmas’ for the last two weeks of the school year. Yes, it’s that time of year again. A note comes home asking for some extra money for the craft activities needed for the Christmas theme. Now there may be a wonderful reason for this….it just takes a bit to convince me. I would want to ask the teacher:

• What is the purpose? The response will determine whether this is a teacher who really knows his/her stuff, or just another teacher trapped in the past of nice activities to finish the year with.
• How will this drive my child’s learning in ways that are powerful and future focused? Yes, I know it’s nice to do some really cool stuff just for fun too…
• What will they be doing/making? Is this something that reinforces our throw away society? Is it a nice paper Christmas tree with some glittery lights; maybe a fairy to put at the top of the tree; or some loops we can colour in then staple together to hang in the classroom…
• Will they be considering Christmas from multiple perspectives – different cultures, religions, and ways of celebrating? Giving instead of getting? Does that mean when other religious festivals are on the calendar they’ll do the same? As well as the Easter theme that is?

If a teacher focuses on a Christmas theme for two weeks it could look like this:

-’making and doing’, singing, dancing etc on a Christmas theme – 8 hours

-working out the item for the Christmas concert so it looks like the kids have come up with the idea – 2 hours

-the class relentlessly practising for the concert  - 3 hours

-liaising with the parents re costumes and props – 1 hour

-team or schoolwide practices for the concert – 2 hours

That’s 16 hours for Christmas each year, and I think that is a conservative estimate. This is just on the ‘celebrating’ aspect of Christmas.

Let’s just pretend that a classroom was ‘doing Christmas’  like it’s been done for generations. By the time a student finishes their first six years of schooling they could have had nearly 100 hours of ‘doing Christmas’.

Sorry, in most cases I don’t consider this deep and meaningful learning. It’s simply repeating education as we know it. I know there are some teachers and some schools that have moved beyond this. And I can also tell you that an awful lot haven’t. And that has got to change or schools will become irrelevant. Actually when I think about it ‘doing Christmas’ is just one symptom of the root cause. Too many teachers teach for the past not the future.

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