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#21
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Homework over spring break (long)
In article ,
dragonlady wrote: This is made more challenging by the fact that the holidays move around on the secular calendar. It's quite easy for even most Jews to miss the fact that a certain secular date is going to wind up conflicting with a major holiday more than a few weeks before the date. When you live in an area that is seriously multi-ethnic and multi-religious, things get interesting. I try to have all of the major Jewish, Christian and Islamic holidays on my Palm Pilot, but somehow a bunch got dropped off when I bought a new one. Well, you're doing better than I am, then. Although I do have a Jewish calendar at home, of course, and do have access to the information on the internet, it is not uncommon to hear things like "When is Rosh Hashanah this year?" uttered in our home and in our religious community. We all have the wherewithall to find out, but we don't always have the information at hand. I put the holidays into my Palm only sporadically, and not usually more than a few months ahead of time. I believe there is freeware/shareware out there to help out with this, but I haven't gotten around to downloading any. (Partly because I have to use a custom conduit to sync my datebook to my employer's calendar/meeting system, and am afraid to mess with it.) I myself made an appointment for my son during Passover, even when I knew exactly when it was. I was trying to fit it into all of our usual weekday scheduling insanity, and totally forgot about Passover for a moment. I did realize about 15 minutes later and called back and changed it, but I have to agree with you that something like this could easily be no more than an unintentional slip-up. I agree, that in an ideal world, teachers with Jewish students in their classes should make sure to be sensitive and find out from the families what special needs/restrictions will arise from their religion, but I don't think we can expect or even want teachers to try to figure this out on their own when observances vary from family to family. No major tests on Yom Kippur is probably a pretty universally good idea where there are Jewish families. Expecting a teacher to realize in advance that, for example, internet usage would be a problem for observant Jewish families on the last two days of Passover might asking a bit much. Robyn (mommy to Ryan 9/93 and Matthew 6/96 and Evan 3/01) -- "Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing." -- Theodore Roosevelt |
#22
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Homework over spring break (long)
Robyn wrote:
expecting a teacher to realize in advance that, for example, internet usage would be a problem for observant Jewish families on the last two days of Passover might asking a bit much. How about expecting a teacher to realize in advance that public libraries would be closed on Easter Sunday and, therefore, having a report due the very next day isn't the best plan? Or that many students would be celebrating a major holiday with their families on Sunday and that turning in the report the very next day, again, may not be the best plan? beeswing, whose new slogan appears to be "I want my vacation back!" |
#23
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Homework over spring break (long)
I can certainly understand
a non-Jew scheduling a meeting without checking a Jewish calendar, but a Jewish person suggesting a business meeting during a holiday time (say Sept/Oct or March/April) without checking a calendar is just asking for trouble. Last week I had a lot of fun waiting to see how long it was going to take for the local Jewish Community Federation to cancel an Executive Committee lunch that they originally had scheduled for the 5th of April (set last June), then moved to the 9th. They finally cancelled on the 8th! |
#24
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Homework over spring break (long)
In ,
Robyn Kozierok wrote: *In article , *dragonlady wrote: * *When you live in an area that is seriously multi-ethnic and *multi-religious, things get interesting. I try to have all of the major *Jewish, Christian and Islamic holidays on my Palm Pilot, but somehow a *bunch got dropped off when I bought a new one. * *don't always have the information at hand. I put the holidays into my *Palm only sporadically, and not usually more than a few months ahead of *time. I believe there is freeware/shareware out there to help out with *this, but I haven't gotten around to downloading any. (Partly because *I have to use a custom conduit to sync my datebook to my employer's *calendar/meeting system, and am afraid to mess with it.) You might check out pilotyid (no joke: http://www.pilotyid.com/collection.php?cat=1 ) and see if they have something that meets your needs. The Mac version of Palm Desktop came with some holiday plugin-type date packs, so I'm using their "Jewish Holidays" one, as well as their US Holidays one. They also have Islamic Holidays, Christian Holidays, and Christian Orthodox Holidays. I would have thought this was available in the Windows Palm Desktop as well-- ?? -- hillary israeli vmd http://www.hillary.net "uber vaccae in quattuor partes divisum est." not-so-newly minted veterinarian-at-large |
#25
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Homework over spring break (long)
In article ,
beeswing wrote: Robyn wrote: expecting a teacher to realize in advance that, for example, internet usage would be a problem for observant Jewish families on the last two days of Passover might asking a bit much. How about expecting a teacher to realize in advance that public libraries would be closed on Easter Sunday and, therefore, having a report due the very next day isn't the best plan? Or that many students would be celebrating a major holiday with their families on Sunday and that turning in the report the very next day, again, may not be the best plan? If it weren't also vacation week, I'd say that giving a week to do a project, the last day of which was a holiday on which the library would be closed and many families would be having major holiday celebrations would not necessarily be unreasonable. If you hadn't been out of the country, presumably you wouldn't have been doing your library work on the last day. So I doubt the library issue impacted many people. Similarly, those who weren't travelling for the vacation could have planned their time to complete the work before their holiday celebration. Hypothetically, if a teacher gives more than enough time to complete the project, so that one wouldn't need to work on it every single day to get it complete in time, then having that time include a day or two when some children wouldn't be able to work on it, or do certain parts of it (like the library visit) doesn't seem unreasonable to me. In the situation you describe, it sounds like the project given was a lot of work to expect students to complete in one week, so perhaps my hypothetical doesn't apply. And of course, that doesn't even touch the whole issue of giving students a BREAK from school/homework over spring break! Robyn (mommy to Ryan 9/93 and Matthew 6/96 and Evan 3/01) -- "Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing." -- Theodore Roosevelt |
#27
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Homework over spring break (long)
In article , beeswing says...
Robyn wrote: expecting a teacher to realize in advance that, for example, internet usage would be a problem for observant Jewish families on the last two days of Passover might asking a bit much. How about expecting a teacher to realize in advance that public libraries would be closed on Easter Sunday and, therefore, having a report due the very next day isn't the best plan? Or that many students would be celebrating a major holiday with their families on Sunday and that turning in the report the very next day, again, may not be the best plan? I'm with ya on pretty much everything you've said up to this point. But I don't think anyone is obliged to make sure the day before a due date is a good one for research on a project. To make sure there is plenty of time and opportunity for a task from its assignment and due date, yes. To make sure the night before has things open for a last-minute scramble - no. Banty (sorry, procrastinators!) |
#28
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Homework over spring break (long)
Well, you're doing better than I am, then. Although I do have a
Jewish calendar at home, of course, and do have access to the information on the internet, it is not uncommon to hear things like "When is Rosh Hashanah this year?" That's true for me as a Christian, too, with non-commercial but important observances like Ash Wednesday or the first week in Advent. As observant as I feel I am, it's easy to miss things that Hallmark isn't jamming down my throat. Come to think of it, I've been known to miss secular holidays that Hallmark *does* jam down with some regularlity. I'm constantly finding Mother's Day or Father's Day sneaking up on me, and I've given up (much to my Hallmark-programmed mother's chagrin) even trying to keep track of Grandparents Day and Sweetest Day. And as someone who often plans meetings for volunteers and special events in my work, I appreciate the indulgence of religious communities who assume it was an oversight and not a deliberate slight when we occasionally slip up. For the life of me, I can't think of a reason at all why anyone would intentionally step on a religious observance. When Henry was in a Jewish preschool, we were keeping track of the Jewish calendar because of dietary restrictions as school, Christian calendar because that is our personal practice, and also we were new at that time to observing Kwanzaa, Juneteenth, etc as we worked in African American celebrations in our still-new-at-the-time role as a family built through transracial adoption. It was quite the juggling act at times, and Henry loved the near-constant holiday observance! -Dawn Mom to Henry, 11 |
#29
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Homework over spring break (long)
If you hadn't been out of the
country, presumably you wouldn't have been doing your library work on the last day. So I doubt the library issue impacted many people. Then again, for working families like ours who don't travel during the break and may still need to work, there is less, not more, time for homework during a school break -- when Henry was younger he attended Day Camp during the breaks; the hours were longer than school hours and he came home happily exhausted. To try to fit in a major project during that week would have been difficult, and IIRC our public library may have had reduced hours during those weeks as well, due to holidays and decreased traffic. -Dawn Mom to Henry, 11 |
#30
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Homework over spring break (long)
"beeswing" wrote in message
... How about expecting a teacher to realize in advance that public libraries would be closed on Easter Sunday and, therefore, having a report due the very next day isn't the best plan? Or that many students would be celebrating a major holiday with their families on Sunday and that turning in the report the very next day, again, may not be the best plan? , and, as in this case, not expecting the child to turn it in on the due date *and* expecting that that child's parents would know that they would be given that grace. This particular teacher is not thinking of others much, if I understood the situation correctly, or, perhaps, is not an effective communicator. -Aula |
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