I grew up with Christmas and love carols and identify
completely with the exasperated mother in Amahl and the Night Visitors, which I
listen to as much as the rest of the family will let me get away with during
the interval between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I even like the super-corny
“Let it Be Christmas” as sung by Alan Jackson, because I like the peace and
love around the world message.
I know that the dominant culture in the US and at school
celebrates Christmas and that we get a much smaller dose of it here than we
would in cities and towns in many of our home countries where the streetlights
are all decorated and there is a huge lit Christmas tree at the head of the
main shopping street and Christmas carols are played day and night. In Doha,
outside of malls and certain international schools you would hardly know it is
nearly Christmas. I imagine that it makes an international school seem like a
safe haven in which to celebrate it but we need to be more careful.
"The diversity that includes
more than 70 different nationalities provides limitless opportunities to foster
international mindedness and cross-cultural understanding.”
–from
the message from the director on the school’s website
I
agree with the spirit of this statement completely, in evidence at our recent
International Week, which included cultural presentations, opportunities for
kids to wear their own national dress and to sample food from around the world.
And then Christmas hit. Besides the Christmas
trees and Rudolf art projects a couple of things happened that didn’t sit quite
right with me:
- My daughter’s class went to the head of school’s office where they were read a book about Santa and ate Christmas cookies.
I can’t be sure of all the details but she insisted that
they didn’t talk about how it was from the head’s own family traditions at this
time of year that she wanted to share with the preschoolers.
- An elementary principal ended her weekly e-mail to us yesterday with “Happy National Day to our Qatari families” and “Merry Christmas and Happy New Year” to everyone.
Why didn’t they say “Merry Christmas to families who are
celebrating” this holiday?
The
emphasis on Christmas without qualifying it as celebrated by many but not all
students makes me wonder about how seriously they take “international-mindedness”
and “cross-cultural understanding.” The
camp at which I worked last summer, which is barely culturally diverse at all,
appears to work harder on inclusion and cultural competence than one of the
most highly-regarded international schools in Doha.
An international school should be more careful with
language. I don’t want a ban
on celebrating or mentioning holidays at school, but there should be more equally-applied recognition that holidays are cultural institutions and that everyone is
welcome to celebrate them together as a means of exploring other cultures.
