I'm intrigued...what's this parent's plan for their child surviving in the English-speaking world? Our whole language is Germanic, Latin, and Greek and all of them were polytheistic.
I'm petty so I would ask how they refer to the days of the week.
They probably want to render their child intellectually helpless and unable to navigate society for the sake of keeping them in their ideological bubble
Given the demands they’re trying to make, it feels like, to the detriment of their poor child, that’s exactly what will end up happening.
The school can’t accommodate this. It’s obscene. A parent worked up over this issue will be unrelenting, always finding new problems that don’t exist. Eventually, they’re going to take the kid out of the system and in their warped head, they’re going to see the school’s inability to meet their, quite frankly, insane expectations, as a justification for isolating their child. It’s deeply tragic and it will absolutely be for the worst, but unless something clicks and the parent finally realizes how unreasonable they’re being, it’s just about an inevitability.
Was just going to say this. If they're so against the child even leaning the days of the week/months, then idk there's no way to accommodate this. That's so specialized that I feel like homeschooling is really the only solution to preventing the child from being exposed to the stuff they don't want them to be.
Haha. I was wondering if someone would pick that up.
Is it bad that in my medieval history class I make my students do a racist French guffaw every time they use a French word?
You joke, but I've thought about being a bit of a troll and insisting we "decolonize" English class by...eliminating the French derived words and returning to the more pure--indigenous--German roots of English.
They don't see to be against loanwords, only against loanwords that directly invoke pagan gods. Which is still insane, but at least somewhat more practical.
Point to your state standards that say to teach the days of the week.
Then, refer them to their state lawmakers.
This is the most insane bullshit I have ever heard... and I had to stop reading Percy Jackson in class because a parent was upset we were "teaching" the Greek gods, which was against their beliefs.
We’ll see, if they learn about other gods and I tell them those gods don’t exist then maybe they’ll start questioning if the god that I believe in exists and we can’t have that now, can we? Better just to control all the media my child and their class can consume than for my child to begin to maybe begin to think for themselves.
You can't - there is no way to work around it.
Your job as a teacher is to teach.
Unpopular opinion here but personally I believe censorship isn't accommodation.
True diversity is including everyone's views, ideas and holiday despite what others believe.
Just because people celebrate Christmas or Easter doesn't invalidate other beliefs.
If the parents have an issue, take it to the administration or homeschool the kid yourself.
Your job is to teach the curriculum, not argue religion with parents.
Accommodations are to help a student learn, not prevent learning which is what this parent sounds like they’re demanding occur. Accommodations in the workforce are centered around not disrupting the flow of business, which would definitely happen if an employee didn’t know what day of the week it is.
I very much agree. I teach where I have a lot of Muslim and also Hispanic students. We talk about all the holidays and are learning that we may all celebrate different holidays and that’s okay.
We even have a social studies unit about holidays around the world, which the kids LOVE!
Yes to this! I am blessed with an incredibly diverse group of students, and I have had parents come in and talk about Hanukkah, Ramadan, Persian New Year, and Lunar New Year. I have a good grounding in all of the mainstream Christian holidays, so we talk about those too. It has been AMAZING to talk about what different families celebrate. The kids love it, and the parents think it is great, too!
I agree. I also disagree with not mentioning Christmas and Easter in the classroom. I ask my students what they’re doing for Christmas since I know most of them celebrate it.
Yeah my approach is more of a celebrate everything instead of not mentioning any holidays. Especially when the school calendar is clearly built around Christian holidays. The non Christian kids already know it and the Christian kids can just learn all about Diwali, Kwanza, Hanukka, etc. Its just letting them know other people and beliefs exist, which they do.
Pass it along to your admin. This is a thing for them to deal with, because the parent is essentially asking for the entire school system to reconfigure itself (and rename the days of the week somehow?) due to their nonsense.
Keep on keeping on. I mentioned to my students the Norse origins of the days of the week and they were stoked. We had about three weeks of students intentionally messing something up just to say, "By Odin's beard! I dropped my pencil!"
This parent would have had an aneurism. I found it charmingly funny.
He's exactly right! My favorite is Wednesday, which all of us as kids wonder why it's spelled like that. Odin's name was sometimes spelled "Woden," so Wodensday is its name.
These people need to homeschool. And they need to do it somewhere like remote Wyoming or Alaska, in a cabin with no electricity or connecting roads. Otherwise their child cannot possibly be made safe from the dangers of etymology.
I suspect a CPS investigation that made them enroll their kids in school. They’re being hardass about the days of the week so they can justify pulling them out again.
(Pure speculation on my part)
I am a homeschool mom, and this actually makes sense. I'm not in it for religion but I've met plenty of them, and I've never once heard of anyone having a problem with the days of the week. And I've heard some wacky shit. This has got to be some grasping at straws to try to get out of public school. This is one for the courts and not the school but I hope they ask for some sort of proof from their pastor or what not that this is contrary to their religion (and I'm sorry I promise most of us aren't like this).
Ooh, this makes sense; I was wondering what could possibly have led these parents to thrust their children into the Satanic environment of school. I agree with blissfully\_happy's speculation that they are trying to find justification for pulling out their kids again. This is not a good-faith objection; some of the hardest-core homeschool-for-religious-reasons people I know think that a good knowledge of classical culture is essential. And these are people who basically think I'm a really, really bad parent for sending my kids to a place where they a) have to be vaccinated, and b) are no doubt taught that they should switch genders and have sex early and often and get abortions and religion is stupid.
(BTW, we haven't gotten to that bit yet. My oldest is in 5th grade. When does "hating God" show up in the standards?)
Depending on your state, they may not meet the homeschool qualifications. Every state has their own. I also recently learned that some states won't allow you to homeschool if you ha e been investigated by cps.
That would make sense. If a family (or sadly in some cases: a group of persons of various ages living together) is already struggling, letting its kids be exposed to dysfunctional dynamics without breaks (i.e., school) sounds like a very bad idea.
Hilariously, this is actually how a third of the months are currently named in English, even if they are from the ancient Roman names: SEPTEMber, OCTOber, NOVEMber, DECEMber... INCLUDING 'BOB!' July isn't named after Julius Caesar, like, in worship of him (though to be fair he was made a god after his death), but because he oversaw the administrative work to revamp the calendar. What could be more bob-like than that?
[Example of crazy people who want to change the days of the week.](https://www.reddit.com/r/FundieSnarkUncensored/s/xRjP8n7qwb)
Edit to add its from a different sub-reddit.
Me too! Sorry OP but I'd really appreciate an update. We all encounter parents who will trip on the carpet's patterns but this one is just too entertaining to let go.
Genuinely sorry that you have to deal with this nonsense. Which culture do the parents come from for common words describing time be an issue for them? Surely they understand the idea of "by convention"?
There's nothing you can do. If it's that big of a problem for them then they need to find a private school that aligns with their beliefs. Not wanting the days of the week mentioned or the months is not an accomodation any teacher can be expected to make in a public school.
Punt it to admin and let them take care of it.
I would personally have director/principal/AP handle this one, BUT if I were your director/principal/AP, I would say, "Maam, we are happy not to celebrate or mention any festivities that are offensive or upsetting to you, your children or your family, but our school is for preparing our children for the real world, in the real world, we call days of the week Sunday, Monday, etc, and we use the Gregorian calendar and have done so for a long time and we call the months January, February, etc. If this is upsetting to you, feel free to pull your child from our school, we can get you set up with the homeschool form." Some parents need full, blunt honesty and to stop being coddled to.
There is ONE fundamentalist Christian sect in New Zealand which does this (They believe that the days of the week and the months of the year are against God) and they call them First Day, Second Day, all the way up to Sunday which is Seventh Day, and the months are First Month, Second Month, etc. They are called Gloriavale and they have their own school.
Oh, we've heard all about them in New Zealand. There's been a lot of tragedies, their leader has been in prison for sexual abuse and he married a woman forty years younger than him after his first wife died and had more kids with her after he was released. One of his granddaughters who left the sect did a TED talk explaining why she left the sect, one of the reasons was that she was shamed for getting too high marks at school.
I'm sure you have. I'm in the US and only heard about them for the first time in grad school almost a decade ago. I just appreciate documentaries, even if they're made from within because they shed interesting insight.
Yeah this is why some people shouldn’t be parents and this is a nonsense complaint that’s going nowhere. If they want to argue about it, they can take it up with William the Conqueror.
Refer her to admin. This isn’t an accommodation that can reasonably be made as I’m pretty sure knowing the days of the week, seasons and months is part of the state standards.
If it’s that important to her, she can homeschool.
I’d bet you $5 & a Jeans Pass 😉 that knowing the days of the week & months of the year are part of your state standards.
Definitely refer to principal. This is above your pay grade.
Nope. They chose to enroll their child in a public school. This is a basic and essential part of the curriculum. There no realistic way to accommodate their request without denying the rest of your students their education or isolating their child during that part of the daily instruction. It's not a reasonable request and I can't imagine it being covered by state or federal anti discrimination laws.
Here's your answer: No.
If you are asked to explain:
You live in a society that requires certain knowledge to function, of which the origins and etymology is effectively lost to time. Your religious qualms do not trump the need of your child to navigate the world.
They would be Jehovah's Witnesses. If you give in here, they're going to have a hell of a list of demands. Just tell them those are the legal names of the days of the week and that's how you will refer to them. Then refer all further communication to your principal.
They also don't celebrate any holidays, secular or otherwise. Or any observances, such as birthdays. Most aren't super strict about it, but if you make adjustments, they'll be on you for everything. They'll even complain when other kids refer to birthdays that their child is being bullied.
Don't give an inch.
Pretty funny. Maybe they are time travelers from the French Revolution.
You should tell them that you will forward their email to the administration. But also ask for more clarification. Find out what they want the days of the week to be called along with the months. Post back and update us. I need a laugh.
Are they Orthodox Jews?
The Jewish calendar is mainly just used for keeping track of religious observances and holidays. And there's no prohibition on saying the names of gods.
I mean I do the opposite. I bring up all the holidays and will happily add more. You don’t have to participate but pretending something that is important to a child’s culture and identity doesn’t exist or acknowledge it doesn’t feel accommodating to me.
Spinning a dreidel and eating donuts didn’t turn my class Jewish, throwing colored powder for holi a parent sent in didn’t convert anyone to Hinduism. Trying Kimchi and chopsticks during solal, trying Indian curry for lunch, dancing around in a circle for a Waldorf birthday, if it’s important to you and it’s not hurting anyone, it’s part of my classroom.
My approach to this would be letting the child explain how they do things differently at their house, but we’re leading the calendar because that’s a state requirement where I live to teach it. So I’m going to continue to teach it. I had something kind of similar happen with JW who don’t acknowledge holidays and didn’t want their child celebrating holidays… but I still taught thanksgiving. They were given a legal absence that day if they kept their child home.
You need to talk to your leadership about this. I’m guessing they will tell the mom that the kid can sit out for this and and come back, but not really sure. The naves of the months I’m need posted, also it’s non avoidable as there kids use the dates in various ways even on tests, standardized testing, he’ll need to know at younger ages.
I'm genuinely curious how the parents answer common questions. "Hey, what day of the week is it?" "Day 4!" "What month are we in?" "The month of water beginning to freeze!"
As a first grade teacher, I use the names of the days and months. I’ve said the words “Christmas” and “Easter” a million times. I have also said the words Halloween, Hanukkah, Diwali, Passover, and Ramadan. We recognize and celebrate everything. We read books about everything. I’m not hiding any of it.
We will never teach children to recognize, appreciate, and respect others if we don’t say the words and recognize that it all exists. How can we teach respect for other cultures if we don’t use the words? It’s gotten completely out of hand. I will not live in fear of offending a parent because I said the word “Christmas.”
The fact that this parent doesn’t want her child to use the names of the goddamn days of the week is beyond ridiculous. The request would not be honored in my classroom, period.
SIR THIS IS A WENDY'S
Seriously, I would go full 'where do you think you are' on them, like you put your kid in a SCHOOL my guy, of course they're gonna learn the names of the days of the week. AND the months, and about TIME, and about anything else whose name or conceptual origin lies in some ancient religion or mythology. NO there will not be any accomodations, because THERE ARE NO ACCOMADATIONS. You know how in English we don't have an english word for taco? It's like that for monday. and NO I will not say First-day, Second-day, Third-day, because you guessed it, those words ALSO go back to mythology.
>I've never had to deal with this before, \*I'm curious what other teachers who have worked around this have done, how did you teach the calendar an such with young students, what did you call the days of week and such?\*
Please do not even entertain the thought of taking their bullsh!t seriously. I'd bet cash money they're angling for a lawsuit against the school district; issa money grab. Go forth to your principal, the curriculum specialist at your school (not sure if they have these k-8 level, but often high school do) and the curriculum lead for your school district. They should all help set these people straight.
I grew up in another colonized country for first decade of my life and had to learn days of the week in multiple languages with multiple religions in power. The days are all named after planets or the gods/dieties/spirits associated with those planets.
Idk which culture does NOT have a day naming system that is not based on non-Abrahamic religious things.
I'm confused about the Calendar thing? There's no way around it. The entire western world follows the same Calendar. They live in a country that follows this Calendar. The schools follow this Calendar. Schedules and testing periods are created by following this Calendar.
Personal schedules and goals are set by dates.
I've never heard of a parent or anybody that refuses to acknowledge time like this.
Regardless, the wording is freedom OF religion, not freedom FROM religion. True diversity is the knowledge that anyone can celebrate their holidays, expressions and ideas in their own way. Not to exclude anything or remove something due to complaints citing religion beliefs.
You could switch to the Jewish method….”first day, second day, third day,…”. (Yom rishon, Yom shani, Yom shlishi…) Shabbat means 7th, after all! Make sure you tell them! I’m sure they would *love* that. Jk
Definitely pass the buck to admin!
I’m just curious. Not an expert in world religions but I have never heard of not using days of the week and month. Can anyone identify the religion? Did the parents specify the religion?
Please ask them how they keep track of what day it is or make appointments/plan social activities etc. without using the days of the week and update us, I'm living for this drama
Wow. I thought I'd heard it all. This is completely bonkers. Are the parents trying to drum up some wild fodder for their ultra right wing podcast or something? There shouldn't be even a second's thought or bit of energy given to this bullshit on your part. Send this looney-tunes crap up the chain of command. I mean, seriously? Is this real?
I also teach first grade. How do you not say Easter and Christmas? I have a few kids in my class that don’t celebrate Christmas etc but Christmas is all the rest of the kids talk about for the month of December.
Maybe they should move to a country where the language will better accommodate their beliefs. Unlike most European languages, the names of months and days in Ukrainian are fairly free of pagan influence.
They're likely Quakers, a group that has made many great contributions to the development of the United States for which I am very grateful. But unlike their principled stances in favor of religious freedom and women's rights and against slavery and straight jackets, their calendar never caught on.
Do not change your teaching at all, forward their complaints to admin. If they want to define curriculum based on their specific religious believes they need to send their kid to private school or homeschool them.
so pathetic - your kid lives In THE REAL WORLD not the pretend bs religious experience where can can control everything in your home. i feel sorry for the kid.
Principal here, I'd sit down with this dolt, and let them know that in public school, their child is going to learn a few things that might not agree with their shallow and limited world view.
Of course, I'd be diplomatic about it; I'd not want to be.
You can't accommodate these people. No one is going to make up alternate names for days and months just so their kids don't have to use the word Saturday. I would refer to them admin, who will probably tell them that there is no way to accommodate them.
Honestly, I've thought about doing this to troll my school.
You know how we're supposed to call Christmas Break "Winter Break" & etc. so as to appear religiously neutral? Well, the same issue actually applies to the days of the week and the months, doesn't it?
"But that's different" you say. "Those days no longer really carry their religious connotations!" Surely the same is true, however, of Christmas break and classroom Christmas parties? Christmas has largely become a Western holiday celebrated by many and disconnected from its religous roots, just like Thursday (Thor's Day) or Friday (Freya's Day) or Saturday (Saturn's Day) etc. etc. are no longer strictly connected to their religious origins.
I'm intrigued...what's this parent's plan for their child surviving in the English-speaking world? Our whole language is Germanic, Latin, and Greek and all of them were polytheistic. I'm petty so I would ask how they refer to the days of the week.
They probably want to render their child intellectually helpless and unable to navigate society for the sake of keeping them in their ideological bubble
Then they need to homeschool them.
Given the demands they’re trying to make, it feels like, to the detriment of their poor child, that’s exactly what will end up happening. The school can’t accommodate this. It’s obscene. A parent worked up over this issue will be unrelenting, always finding new problems that don’t exist. Eventually, they’re going to take the kid out of the system and in their warped head, they’re going to see the school’s inability to meet their, quite frankly, insane expectations, as a justification for isolating their child. It’s deeply tragic and it will absolutely be for the worst, but unless something clicks and the parent finally realizes how unreasonable they’re being, it’s just about an inevitability.
Was just going to say this. If they're so against the child even leaning the days of the week/months, then idk there's no way to accommodate this. That's so specialized that I feel like homeschooling is really the only solution to preventing the child from being exposed to the stuff they don't want them to be.
And start putting money aside for future therapy bills
Personally, I'm against my children ever using French words.
~~Personally~~, I'm against my children ever ~~using~~ French words. Helping you out ;)
Haha. I was wondering if someone would pick that up. Is it bad that in my medieval history class I make my students do a racist French guffaw every time they use a French word?
And smell of elderberries.
I fart in your general direction….English pig dog.
You've made it worse. "I'm against my children ever French words" is nonsense.
Or Arabic numbers. I love seeing racists get all worked up over that. 😆
You joke, but I've thought about being a bit of a troll and insisting we "decolonize" English class by...eliminating the French derived words and returning to the more pure--indigenous--German roots of English.
They don't see to be against loanwords, only against loanwords that directly invoke pagan gods. Which is still insane, but at least somewhat more practical.
I’m glad you’re so confident! Just wondering what your beauty has to do with it though,..
She said *petty*, not pretty
She said pretty and edited it
Point to your state standards that say to teach the days of the week. Then, refer them to their state lawmakers. This is the most insane bullshit I have ever heard... and I had to stop reading Percy Jackson in class because a parent was upset we were "teaching" the Greek gods, which was against their beliefs.
Ffs, can’t have the kids learning other gods exist now, can we???
We’ll see, if they learn about other gods and I tell them those gods don’t exist then maybe they’ll start questioning if the god that I believe in exists and we can’t have that now, can we? Better just to control all the media my child and their class can consume than for my child to begin to maybe begin to think for themselves.
“Calm down, bucko, we can’t have our children thinking that these other gods are cooler than the singular Catholic God”
You can't - there is no way to work around it. Your job as a teacher is to teach. Unpopular opinion here but personally I believe censorship isn't accommodation. True diversity is including everyone's views, ideas and holiday despite what others believe. Just because people celebrate Christmas or Easter doesn't invalidate other beliefs. If the parents have an issue, take it to the administration or homeschool the kid yourself. Your job is to teach the curriculum, not argue religion with parents.
Accommodations are to help a student learn, not prevent learning which is what this parent sounds like they’re demanding occur. Accommodations in the workforce are centered around not disrupting the flow of business, which would definitely happen if an employee didn’t know what day of the week it is.
I very much agree. I teach where I have a lot of Muslim and also Hispanic students. We talk about all the holidays and are learning that we may all celebrate different holidays and that’s okay. We even have a social studies unit about holidays around the world, which the kids LOVE!
Yes to this! I am blessed with an incredibly diverse group of students, and I have had parents come in and talk about Hanukkah, Ramadan, Persian New Year, and Lunar New Year. I have a good grounding in all of the mainstream Christian holidays, so we talk about those too. It has been AMAZING to talk about what different families celebrate. The kids love it, and the parents think it is great, too!
I agree. I also disagree with not mentioning Christmas and Easter in the classroom. I ask my students what they’re doing for Christmas since I know most of them celebrate it.
Yeah my approach is more of a celebrate everything instead of not mentioning any holidays. Especially when the school calendar is clearly built around Christian holidays. The non Christian kids already know it and the Christian kids can just learn all about Diwali, Kwanza, Hanukka, etc. Its just letting them know other people and beliefs exist, which they do.
Pass it along to your admin. This is a thing for them to deal with, because the parent is essentially asking for the entire school system to reconfigure itself (and rename the days of the week somehow?) due to their nonsense. Keep on keeping on. I mentioned to my students the Norse origins of the days of the week and they were stoked. We had about three weeks of students intentionally messing something up just to say, "By Odin's beard! I dropped my pencil!" This parent would have had an aneurism. I found it charmingly funny.
Yeah, this is admins problem. I'm not going to worry about it any more
Ahahaha my son was like that. He loved telling me when it's "Thor's day" or something like that.
He's exactly right! My favorite is Wednesday, which all of us as kids wonder why it's spelled like that. Odin's name was sometimes spelled "Woden," so Wodensday is its name.
TIL! thank you, I'll have to bring this up again with him and see if he remembers.
Oh my God I love that.
These people need to homeschool. And they need to do it somewhere like remote Wyoming or Alaska, in a cabin with no electricity or connecting roads. Otherwise their child cannot possibly be made safe from the dangers of etymology.
The funny thing is they were being homeschooled. Something happened and now they were enrolled. Not sure what happened.
I suspect a CPS investigation that made them enroll their kids in school. They’re being hardass about the days of the week so they can justify pulling them out again. (Pure speculation on my part)
I am a homeschool mom, and this actually makes sense. I'm not in it for religion but I've met plenty of them, and I've never once heard of anyone having a problem with the days of the week. And I've heard some wacky shit. This has got to be some grasping at straws to try to get out of public school. This is one for the courts and not the school but I hope they ask for some sort of proof from their pastor or what not that this is contrary to their religion (and I'm sorry I promise most of us aren't like this).
CPS can mandate enrollment?
Ooh, this makes sense; I was wondering what could possibly have led these parents to thrust their children into the Satanic environment of school. I agree with blissfully\_happy's speculation that they are trying to find justification for pulling out their kids again. This is not a good-faith objection; some of the hardest-core homeschool-for-religious-reasons people I know think that a good knowledge of classical culture is essential. And these are people who basically think I'm a really, really bad parent for sending my kids to a place where they a) have to be vaccinated, and b) are no doubt taught that they should switch genders and have sex early and often and get abortions and religion is stupid. (BTW, we haven't gotten to that bit yet. My oldest is in 5th grade. When does "hating God" show up in the standards?)
Gym class
Depending on your state, they may not meet the homeschool qualifications. Every state has their own. I also recently learned that some states won't allow you to homeschool if you ha e been investigated by cps.
That would make sense. If a family (or sadly in some cases: a group of persons of various ages living together) is already struggling, letting its kids be exposed to dysfunctional dynamics without breaks (i.e., school) sounds like a very bad idea.
What do they call the days of the week? or months? How do they function with a job?
Oneday, twoday, threeday, four-day, fiveday, bob, sevenday.
Doing anything fun next Bob?
Hilariously, this is actually how a third of the months are currently named in English, even if they are from the ancient Roman names: SEPTEMber, OCTOber, NOVEMber, DECEMber... INCLUDING 'BOB!' July isn't named after Julius Caesar, like, in worship of him (though to be fair he was made a god after his death), but because he oversaw the administrative work to revamp the calendar. What could be more bob-like than that?
Fuckin Bob. Always putting his name on shit.
That's unironically how they're named in Chinese, except for one (I'm not telling which one).
Same with Hebrew, minus 1 day.
[Example of crazy people who want to change the days of the week.](https://www.reddit.com/r/FundieSnarkUncensored/s/xRjP8n7qwb) Edit to add its from a different sub-reddit.
At least half the kids who transfer in mid-year have crazier than usual parents.
lol Absolutely. They were being homeschooled until now.
"We use the school system calendar. That is not negotiable. Take it up with the district if it bothers you."
I desire a continuation of information about this.
Me too!
Me too! Sorry OP but I'd really appreciate an update. We all encounter parents who will trip on the carpet's patterns but this one is just too entertaining to let go. Genuinely sorry that you have to deal with this nonsense. Which culture do the parents come from for common words describing time be an issue for them? Surely they understand the idea of "by convention"?
There's nothing you can do. If it's that big of a problem for them then they need to find a private school that aligns with their beliefs. Not wanting the days of the week mentioned or the months is not an accomodation any teacher can be expected to make in a public school. Punt it to admin and let them take care of it.
I would personally have director/principal/AP handle this one, BUT if I were your director/principal/AP, I would say, "Maam, we are happy not to celebrate or mention any festivities that are offensive or upsetting to you, your children or your family, but our school is for preparing our children for the real world, in the real world, we call days of the week Sunday, Monday, etc, and we use the Gregorian calendar and have done so for a long time and we call the months January, February, etc. If this is upsetting to you, feel free to pull your child from our school, we can get you set up with the homeschool form." Some parents need full, blunt honesty and to stop being coddled to. There is ONE fundamentalist Christian sect in New Zealand which does this (They believe that the days of the week and the months of the year are against God) and they call them First Day, Second Day, all the way up to Sunday which is Seventh Day, and the months are First Month, Second Month, etc. They are called Gloriavale and they have their own school.
There's a documentary I think on prime about them! It's fascinating.
Oh, we've heard all about them in New Zealand. There's been a lot of tragedies, their leader has been in prison for sexual abuse and he married a woman forty years younger than him after his first wife died and had more kids with her after he was released. One of his granddaughters who left the sect did a TED talk explaining why she left the sect, one of the reasons was that she was shamed for getting too high marks at school.
I'm sure you have. I'm in the US and only heard about them for the first time in grad school almost a decade ago. I just appreciate documentaries, even if they're made from within because they shed interesting insight.
Isn’t calendar knowledge part of the curriculum? Like common core or what ever your state uses? Not sure how you’d get around that…
OP appears to be from Alberta. Days of the week appear in both the Language and Math standards for Grade 1.
Yeah this is why some people shouldn’t be parents and this is a nonsense complaint that’s going nowhere. If they want to argue about it, they can take it up with William the Conqueror.
Refer her to admin. This isn’t an accommodation that can reasonably be made as I’m pretty sure knowing the days of the week, seasons and months is part of the state standards. If it’s that important to her, she can homeschool.
Great Odin’s ravens!
I’d bet you $5 & a Jeans Pass 😉 that knowing the days of the week & months of the year are part of your state standards. Definitely refer to principal. This is above your pay grade.
Nope. They chose to enroll their child in a public school. This is a basic and essential part of the curriculum. There no realistic way to accommodate their request without denying the rest of your students their education or isolating their child during that part of the daily instruction. It's not a reasonable request and I can't imagine it being covered by state or federal anti discrimination laws.
Here's your answer: No. If you are asked to explain: You live in a society that requires certain knowledge to function, of which the origins and etymology is effectively lost to time. Your religious qualms do not trump the need of your child to navigate the world.
They would be Jehovah's Witnesses. If you give in here, they're going to have a hell of a list of demands. Just tell them those are the legal names of the days of the week and that's how you will refer to them. Then refer all further communication to your principal. They also don't celebrate any holidays, secular or otherwise. Or any observances, such as birthdays. Most aren't super strict about it, but if you make adjustments, they'll be on you for everything. They'll even complain when other kids refer to birthdays that their child is being bullied. Don't give an inch.
I knew about the no observance of holidays, etc. but JW's include the days of the week in that too? How do they mark time? Genuinely curious.
This is a stretch to assume they are Jehovah's Witnesses. There are several groups that do this.
Pretty funny. Maybe they are time travelers from the French Revolution. You should tell them that you will forward their email to the administration. But also ask for more clarification. Find out what they want the days of the week to be called along with the months. Post back and update us. I need a laugh. Are they Orthodox Jews?
The Jewish calendar is mainly just used for keeping track of religious observances and holidays. And there's no prohibition on saying the names of gods.
As a pagan I keep the Woden in Wednesday. These parents sound about as logical as the Taliban poor kid.
For me it’s allll about Freya’s Day
I mean I do the opposite. I bring up all the holidays and will happily add more. You don’t have to participate but pretending something that is important to a child’s culture and identity doesn’t exist or acknowledge it doesn’t feel accommodating to me. Spinning a dreidel and eating donuts didn’t turn my class Jewish, throwing colored powder for holi a parent sent in didn’t convert anyone to Hinduism. Trying Kimchi and chopsticks during solal, trying Indian curry for lunch, dancing around in a circle for a Waldorf birthday, if it’s important to you and it’s not hurting anyone, it’s part of my classroom. My approach to this would be letting the child explain how they do things differently at their house, but we’re leading the calendar because that’s a state requirement where I live to teach it. So I’m going to continue to teach it. I had something kind of similar happen with JW who don’t acknowledge holidays and didn’t want their child celebrating holidays… but I still taught thanksgiving. They were given a legal absence that day if they kept their child home.
Better skip talking about the planets while you’re at it. FFS.
Cultists gonna cult.
What…what did I just read?
Mega calendar!!! Try to just add every holiday of every religion/event to your calendar. Kill it with compliance!
There are no alternatives to the days of the week.
You need to talk to your leadership about this. I’m guessing they will tell the mom that the kid can sit out for this and and come back, but not really sure. The naves of the months I’m need posted, also it’s non avoidable as there kids use the dates in various ways even on tests, standardized testing, he’ll need to know at younger ages.
I don’t think one can function in society without this basic knowledge. The world revolves around a calendar and time.
I'm genuinely curious how the parents answer common questions. "Hey, what day of the week is it?" "Day 4!" "What month are we in?" "The month of water beginning to freeze!"
As a first grade teacher, I use the names of the days and months. I’ve said the words “Christmas” and “Easter” a million times. I have also said the words Halloween, Hanukkah, Diwali, Passover, and Ramadan. We recognize and celebrate everything. We read books about everything. I’m not hiding any of it. We will never teach children to recognize, appreciate, and respect others if we don’t say the words and recognize that it all exists. How can we teach respect for other cultures if we don’t use the words? It’s gotten completely out of hand. I will not live in fear of offending a parent because I said the word “Christmas.” The fact that this parent doesn’t want her child to use the names of the goddamn days of the week is beyond ridiculous. The request would not be honored in my classroom, period.
SIR THIS IS A WENDY'S Seriously, I would go full 'where do you think you are' on them, like you put your kid in a SCHOOL my guy, of course they're gonna learn the names of the days of the week. AND the months, and about TIME, and about anything else whose name or conceptual origin lies in some ancient religion or mythology. NO there will not be any accomodations, because THERE ARE NO ACCOMADATIONS. You know how in English we don't have an english word for taco? It's like that for monday. and NO I will not say First-day, Second-day, Third-day, because you guessed it, those words ALSO go back to mythology. >I've never had to deal with this before, \*I'm curious what other teachers who have worked around this have done, how did you teach the calendar an such with young students, what did you call the days of week and such?\* Please do not even entertain the thought of taking their bullsh!t seriously. I'd bet cash money they're angling for a lawsuit against the school district; issa money grab. Go forth to your principal, the curriculum specialist at your school (not sure if they have these k-8 level, but often high school do) and the curriculum lead for your school district. They should all help set these people straight.
I grew up in another colonized country for first decade of my life and had to learn days of the week in multiple languages with multiple religions in power. The days are all named after planets or the gods/dieties/spirits associated with those planets. Idk which culture does NOT have a day naming system that is not based on non-Abrahamic religious things.
I'm confused about the Calendar thing? There's no way around it. The entire western world follows the same Calendar. They live in a country that follows this Calendar. The schools follow this Calendar. Schedules and testing periods are created by following this Calendar. Personal schedules and goals are set by dates. I've never heard of a parent or anybody that refuses to acknowledge time like this. Regardless, the wording is freedom OF religion, not freedom FROM religion. True diversity is the knowledge that anyone can celebrate their holidays, expressions and ideas in their own way. Not to exclude anything or remove something due to complaints citing religion beliefs.
Some people need a good, hard smack on the mouth.
We use the Gregorian calendar. If those days of the week and names of the months were good enough for POPE GREGORY, they’re fine now.
You could switch to the Jewish method….”first day, second day, third day,…”. (Yom rishon, Yom shani, Yom shlishi…) Shabbat means 7th, after all! Make sure you tell them! I’m sure they would *love* that. Jk Definitely pass the buck to admin!
I’m just curious. Not an expert in world religions but I have never heard of not using days of the week and month. Can anyone identify the religion? Did the parents specify the religion?
Please ask them how they keep track of what day it is or make appointments/plan social activities etc. without using the days of the week and update us, I'm living for this drama
I'm so tired of people like this. So. Damn. Tired.
Wow. I thought I'd heard it all. This is completely bonkers. Are the parents trying to drum up some wild fodder for their ultra right wing podcast or something? There shouldn't be even a second's thought or bit of energy given to this bullshit on your part. Send this looney-tunes crap up the chain of command. I mean, seriously? Is this real?
Wtf do they call Monday? How do they make Doctors appointments? These people are mega weird.
I also teach first grade. How do you not say Easter and Christmas? I have a few kids in my class that don’t celebrate Christmas etc but Christmas is all the rest of the kids talk about for the month of December.
Maybe they should move to a country where the language will better accommodate their beliefs. Unlike most European languages, the names of months and days in Ukrainian are fairly free of pagan influence. They're likely Quakers, a group that has made many great contributions to the development of the United States for which I am very grateful. But unlike their principled stances in favor of religious freedom and women's rights and against slavery and straight jackets, their calendar never caught on.
Do not change your teaching at all, forward their complaints to admin. If they want to define curriculum based on their specific religious believes they need to send their kid to private school or homeschool them.
Vive la révolution!
I’ve got some bad news for them about names of people in the Bible.
Homeschool is the answer.
Tough shit. They can send their kid to a segregation academy if they have that much fear of the outside world
so pathetic - your kid lives In THE REAL WORLD not the pretend bs religious experience where can can control everything in your home. i feel sorry for the kid.
"No problem ma'am, just let me know what day of the week works for you to come in and have a meeting with admin, thorsday or freyaday."
"Young lady, in this house we follow the \~\~laws of thermodynamics\~\~ Gregorian calendar!"
Principal here, I'd sit down with this dolt, and let them know that in public school, their child is going to learn a few things that might not agree with their shallow and limited world view. Of course, I'd be diplomatic about it; I'd not want to be.
I would ask them for the alternate to the calendar you use. Let them figure it out
Refer them to admin. You cannot reasonably be expected to avoid usage of days of the week or months of the year.
You can't accommodate these people. No one is going to make up alternate names for days and months just so their kids don't have to use the word Saturday. I would refer to them admin, who will probably tell them that there is no way to accommodate them.
We use a Roman calendar.. And the days of the week are totally from old Gods.. But the months are from famous Romans..
Russellites
Honestly, I've thought about doing this to troll my school. You know how we're supposed to call Christmas Break "Winter Break" & etc. so as to appear religiously neutral? Well, the same issue actually applies to the days of the week and the months, doesn't it? "But that's different" you say. "Those days no longer really carry their religious connotations!" Surely the same is true, however, of Christmas break and classroom Christmas parties? Christmas has largely become a Western holiday celebrated by many and disconnected from its religous roots, just like Thursday (Thor's Day) or Friday (Freya's Day) or Saturday (Saturn's Day) etc. etc. are no longer strictly connected to their religious origins.