Ok, Who out there besides me... is tired of schools not allowing children to wear a costume to school on halloween? The schools make assumptions that people who are religious would think the children were being encouraged to worship the devil. I know many people of all religious convictions and have only heard one person make an objection to Halloween. And that had nothing to do with satan., Children love halloween, the candy, the costume and yes even the slight spookiness. What the heck is wrong with the schools? They take away prayer and saluting the flag yet allow bullies to run rampant and girls thongs to show when they bend over. They won't allow young ladies to wear a skirt above the knees to school, however if you choose to allow the school to put your child on display at every school function they will put her in a skirt up to her hiney! What am I not getting?
Ok.. Not able to report anything about Halloween yet... but I would like to address B from Chesapeake. Who peed on your candy? I was simply asking some other moms if they miss not having halloween celebrations at school. Yes during the day, where the kids can see each others costumes. And B... I do volunteer at my children's schools. I also volunteer with the elderly. And B, I have had discussions to no avail about the school selling soft drinks and jerkey sticks of all things right beside the office. I do not nor will I ever throw a party for the entire school. I have bought shoes for a child in our area multiple times because she only recieves hand me downs from her older bigger sister. Not one person knows that I do this except for this childs principal. I have also chaperoned trips that the school children go on so that there are enough adults to safely supervise them. Now I am not sure what tv programs you watch. I do not watch tv show that showcase teenage drama. I like the Discovery Channel and Home Decorating Network. You have not observed one single cheerleader at your school if you have not seen a young girl placed in a skirt up to her bottom. Perhaps it is you that should volunteer at your childs school since you do not seem to be aware of the skimpiness of these young girls attire. Now I am not sure exactly what I said to get your proverbial panties in a bunch... but please take a moment ,readjust and realize that this forum is intented for support, not tongue lashings. I am going to assume that you were having a bad day and didn't mean to come off so hateful and judgemental. And MIss B from Cheasapeake..................
HAPPY HALLOWEEN :p
i agree, no fun!
but what makes me really crazy is that chearleading outfits aren't held to the rest of the schools dress code!! Unacceptable! i just dont get it!
I think it has more to do with trying to keep kids paying attention in class. I
n elementary school can you imagine how many kids, lose parts of the costumes, tear the costumes, someone takes someones accessories?
It is hard enough to keep the kids on task then to have to police the costumes.
Our school has a Halloween Carnival in the fall with the "Haunted Castle" attached to the school for the month. No costumes allowed at school, but the night of the Carnival. everyone is in costumes. It is awesome!
Amen sistah!!!
@ Gigis-- Memorial Day
And my daughter had good point yesterday. Some of the schools were off for Columbus Day. She says, Why??
So I just flipped the obvious answer that he discovered America.
Her answer, He did not. He discovered Haiti and he slaughtered millions of people.
Feel free to throw your own party any time at your house and invite the whole school over.
Costumes can be dangerous if they are too elaborate and not everyone has the common sense to keep it simple.
I've seen schools have crazy hat/wig/hair day, dress like a cow boy/girl day, etc.
So it's not like they ban all fun all the time.
What's wrong with celebrating on the nearest weekend or after school on your own time?
The school only has them for maybe 7 hours a day for a total of about 180 teaching days.
There are calendars which have every holiday/celebration on them and believe me there is something every single day to celebrate if you wanted to.
It's not a schools primary purpose to party.
It's not in the curriculum, there's no test for it, it's not a skill per say and there's limited job potential in it.
I think maybe you should volunteer in a school and see what really goes on because a lot of what you list as complaints are things I've seen on only tv and rarely in any school my son has attended.
As it is, they have plenty of celebrations at school with enough candy that could choke a horse.
We end up throwing out the the excess that comes home before it draws ants.
So easy to blame everything on the overly sensitive politically correct. As convenient as that is, it's just not the case. Ask an elementary school teacher. For our school, and many others, it's about distraction. Class is rowdy enough witout everyone buzzing about costumes. Moms wanting to bring sugary cupcakes in, little boys sword fighting or throwin Ninja death stars. It's a hassle for the school. I was never allowed to wear costumes to school, even 35 yrs ago (well before the PC age) We were encouraged to wear them to the carnival afterschool but not appropriate for school.
i think that people are soo scared of offending someone that it blinds them to the innocence of halloween. i think however where i live they can still wear their halloween costumes to school as long as they are appropriate.
Halloween is by no means devil worship. It's been an ongoing celebration among the Scottish, British and Irish for century's.It was originally a Roman tradition, but was then adopted by the Northerners. It's about, how can I put it? "Honouring" the dead souls. Don't we as Americans shut down our schools and other public jobs during (Oh, I forgot the name of the holiday) for the dead? Excuse me I'm forgetting. Anyway, to get to the point, I don't accept that "non religious folks" get offended because it has nothing to do with their religion. Where I live, I see many muslims who find it sacreligious to go trick-o-treating, yet they are the first people who come knocking on my door for candy without a costume. I used to give it to them, now I say, you don't have a costume, then you don't get any.
Watch, in time when their kids have kids of their own, they'll adopt to this fun tradition, they'll even be sitting outside having a glass of beer, and pizza as we all do on the block, and watch the cuties in costumes pass by. People need to stop taking things too seriously, or else Christmas, Hannukah, Chinese New Year, and all other multicultural traditions will be done away with.
Unfortunatly, a lot of the "traditions" and customs that we were allowed in our school years are going away little by little with this generation of children. I really don't blame the schools by themselves, a lot has to be blamed on the situation the schools are in. How many schools are a K to 8th grade school? I really don't think the costume choices that most 8th graders would pick would be appropriate for a kindergarten child to see, or wouldn't be a little fearful of. These days, Halloween has gone from being a fun holiday to dress up and use your inagination to a holiday to dress up as scary as you can, and to try your best to have the most gross and really frightning costume available. I used to really love Halloween, but it isn't on my top 5 list anymore. The schools can say the kids could only dress up in storybook charactor costumes, but really how many middle school kids do YOU know who will want to do THAT? I do get bummed out that some of the fun is gone, but at the same time I kind of understand the dilemma. Also, I have seen what a lot of the parents have allowed their kids to wear in the past when the schools DID allow the costumes, and it was really horrifying. I would never have let my kid out of the house in the sexy costumes that they were wearing! These were middle school age kids, 6th through 8th grade, and they were wearing Raggedy Ann costumes and others to be made VERY sexy (for adults I assume) but they had them on none the less. What should the school do in that situation? These girls had the costumes on, and they even had garters with them, etc. SO wrong for the ages! I thik a lot of the problem is really about what we allow our kids to do, who is keeping an eye on what our kids are doing, why do our kids even want to dress up like this now and not ust in fun costumes, (what has changed in the years that have passed), and the school make up, as far as mixed grades. Yes, it is a bummer to miss out on the fun at school, but there are other fun things that the schools do in place of Hallowen.
There are multiple schools in our school district and they seem to be split down the middle as to who celebrates Halloween and who has a Fall Festival. I wrote this on another post, but personally I think anything that doesn't allow for a true Halloween celebration, including costumes and trick-or-treating, is kinda lame. I understand parents have every right to raise their children as they see fit, and do what they feel they need to do to keep them safe (like doing Trunk-and-Treat at the church, or getting treats at the mall), but for me, the best holiday as a kid was Halloween - getting to wear your costume to school and actually run around the neighborhood at night gathering candy and seeing what everyone else dressed up as. Now my daughter is 4 and not only has her costume for this year, but is planning them out for the next 5 years (super hero, tooth fairy, etc.) People wearing gory scary costumes and displaying scary decorations don't bother us because we know it's all pretend. I am more bothered by the slutty and/or goth costumes out there for 6 year olds. For us Halloween has always been about fun and it's really very innocent, and I think most kids get a kick out of the scary stuff because tying it in with a holiday sometimes makes it a whole lot less scary.
It was SO FUN to wear a costume to school, I remember doing it and I remember my kids being allowed to do it.
I suppose the kids dont get much out of school that day because of the chaos costumes can bring and that is why they decided to forego them. Some costumes just werent conducive to a full day of school activities without getting ripped, torn or in the way of other activities.
Unfortunately all good things must come to an end.
Most schools still have a fall festival and costume contest tho... just after hours.
B/c there are some uninvolved parents and kids will wear whatever they can get away with w/o their parents knowing. I'm sure its for protection of your kids b/c have you seen some of the gory halloween accessories that come w/the costumes? Knives, sickles and swords w/blood on it come to mind.
Our school has a storybook parade. The kids dress up on Halloween (or the school day closest) as their favorite storybook character. They have to bring the book also. Then in the afternoon they all line up and parade around. The teachers and staff get in on it too. From full costumes of Winnie the Pooh, Cat in the Hat, Dorothy and Toto, Thing 1 & Thing 2, Harry Potter.
No scary characters, weapons, masks allowed.
My son is going to be Batman and my girl is going as Batgirl (pink!). She saw the costume and said 'Look I can be like C!'
I am with you on this!
My kids are in private schools so we do not have this issue but I love Halloween and the spirit and I do think schools get paranoid for no reason about many things.
I don't get it either....and I went to a parochial school for eleven years and we were allowed to wear costumes.
Whatever the reason...I don't see why they don't let kids wear costumes. Its sad.
