Mother's Day Ban in Schools a Step to Anarchy

After 40 years in the column business, I never thought it necessary to thunder about Mother’s Day – but that was before political correctness.

Now comes the Rodeph Sholom Day School of New York City which banned Mothers Day and Father’s Day from its calendar of celebrations. To wit:

“These holidays are not needed to enhance our writing and arts programs. Families in our society are now diverse and varied. We are a school with many different family makeups. We need to recognize the emotional well being of all the children. Recognition of these holidays in a social setting may not be a positive experience for all children.”

The New York Post reports Mother’s Day at the school was banned upon complaint by a man who had adopted his son with a gay partner.

Rodeph Sholom is a private, reform Jewish institution catering to those who can afford $15,000 for kindergarten instruction – more for higher grades.

Indignation over the assault on special recognition of parents, by a “liberal Jewish school,” is led by conservative columnist Jonah Goldberg, a graduate.

Goldberg declares the ban a “farce.” He quotes the “solidly Jewish imperative found in the Old Testament to honor thy Father and thy Mother.”

The school states: “Families are changing. Some children are uncomfortable.” Goldberg points out the obvious – the ban is meant to accommodate non- traditional family arrangements and spare the ids of children affected.

There certainly are inequities in life. My family once moved to a new town, and I entered the third grade in mid term. During the first week, the class celebrated Valentine Day by sending homemade cards to each other. I made one for a pretty girl who had smiled at me. She received a dozen or so valentines. I, the new kid, didn’t get one.

As you can see, I never got over being left out. Nevertheless, I learned that life is not universally equal – a lesson that enables me to enjoy what good things do come my way and to share with others.

School is the place to learn about realities of life and how to deal with them. Children can not – should not – be sheltered entirely.

If children have two daddies, or two mommies, one or the other, or none at all; sooner or later they have to cope with the situation. Two celebratory cards on the same day, or one, or none.

Of course, Rodeph Sholom is not alone in non- judgmental permissiveness – the first step to anarchy.

Other private and public schools also are plagued by political correctness. No non-sectarian prayers for teachers, fellow pupils, community and nation. No stern punishment for misbehavior. No insistence on attendance and application to studies. No curricula for ethics, early American history or responsible citizenship.

Children are born barbarians. Yet, parents and teachers who invoke discipline are liable for legal action if children complain to political bureaucrats. Without tough love, little barbarians grow up to be big barbarians.

All this said and done, it is not necessary, or even desirable, for schools to feature every holiday.

Special days for Independence, Memorial, Veterans, President’s (forget George Washington and Abraham Lincoln), and Thanksgiving pertain equally to everyone. Consequently they deserve school-sponsored projects. All other holidays should be reserved for, and celebrated by, individual recognition.

Mother’s Day also meets the criteria of people of all political, religious and cultural persuasions. In privacy, everyone can do his or her own thing. However, society owes nothing to extreme lifestyles.

Anna M. Jarvis, a Sunday school teacher at Grafton, West Virginia, is credited with originating the modern Mother’s Day. A spinster devoted to her mother, Anna began a drive to establish a national Mother’s Day after her mother died in May 1905.

Her intent was “to improve family bonds.”

Congress in May 1914 unanimously adopted a resolution dedicating the second Sunday in May as Mother’s Day. The custom since has been adopted by Canada, Mexico, China, Japan, and several nations in South America and Africa.

Schools and families, together, have an abiding interest in stable families – traditional or otherwise. All of us owe gratitude to our progenitors, or their surrogates, for rearing us to self-sufficiency if nothing else. Schools have a critical role in making the process understandable, even if not totally satisfying.

If we don’t save motherhood, then apple pie and Chevrolets could be next.

PARTING SHOTS

The governor of Massachusetts, Jane Swift, is in a Boston hospital about to give birth to twins. A Republican, she refuses to turn over her duties temporarily to the Democrat secretary of state. She says everything will come out all right without him.

* * *

Another recount of Florida votes by a consortium of newspapers found 111,261 “over votes” – punches for both Bush and Gore. Ralph Nader told us there was no difference between the two.

Lindsey Williams is a Sun Columnist

Williams – mothers

sunday – may 13, 2001

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