Thanksgiving – Isn’t it Everyone’s Holiday?

Isn’t Thanksgiving the best holiday of the year, especially for schoolchildren to celebrate? It fosters gratitude and generosity, values that are often missing in today’s world. It encourages young people to count their blessings, to give back, and to engage in community service — such as food and clothing drives — to help those less fortunate. It doesn’t favor one religion or another, like Christmas, a Christian holiday marking the birth of Jesus, or even Halloween, which some won’t observe because of its pagan origins. Finally, it acknowledges that we are a nation of immigrants, and we are comprised of a rich tapestry of cultures, ethnicities, religions and backgrounds.  

What could be a better holiday for students to observe, in and out of school?  Isn’t Thanksgiving the most unifying day of the year? Not to officials in the Seattle public schools, Washington State’s largest school system. According to Fox News, the district sent letters to teachers and staff saying that Thanksgiving is “a time of mourning” for its Native American students. 

The memo, from Caprice Hollins, the district’s director of Equity, Race & Learning Support, included a “debunking” of 11 “myths” about the First Thanksgiving. The list attempted to knock down traditional views of the holiday, including what was served, the motives of the Pilgrims, and the commonly held belief that the holiday was a happy one. Instead, the letter stated that Thanksgiving is a time of mourning for Native Americans. A spokesperson for the district said the letter was an attempt to help students understand history from the perspective of others. 

According to Fox News, “one Seattle-area tribe says Thanksgiving is not somber on the reservation but a time to see friends and family, as it is for other Americans.” 

The report quoted Daryl Williams of the Tulalip Tribes saying that Northwest tribes celebrate the holiday with turkey and salmon. 

“Before the period of bitter and violent relationships between natives and their culturally European counterparts, they worked together to survive,” he said. “The spirit of Thanksgiving, of people working together to help each other, is the spirit I think that needs to grow in this country because this country has gotten very divisive.” 

One of my favorite Thanksgiving books when my children were small was Molly’s Pilgrim by Barbara Cohen, which takes place around the turn of the last century. I recently read it again in anticipation of sharing it with my six-year-old granddaughter this Thanksgiving. It could probably use an update to make the third-grade teacher Miss Stickley more proactive against her students’ bullying of Molly, a recent immigrant from Russia.  But the message is still a beautiful one – the class finally comes to understand that Molly’s mother is a Pilgrim too. She left her native land for religious freedom, just like the original Pilgrims. 

As we observe Thanksgiving in our schools and in our homes, let us focus on the important values the holiday promotes – freedom, gratitude, diversity, and understanding. As role models, we need to be vigilant in teaching our children to focus on what unites us, not on what divides us. 

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,312480,00.html#ixzz1eN2yRcNZ