Holidays in schools and education beyond the turkey and the gravy

Holidays in Schools and Education Beyond the Turkey and Gravy
Since the Holiday season is here, I have been thinking about how different schools approach the Holidays Celebration issues differently. I have been working as a 1st grade teacher at my current job for the last 4 years and by being a Charter school we have a lot of freedom to pick and design our own curriculum, which gives us the opportunity to embrace every culture and every Word Holiday and learn about the particular culture and Holiday traditions of different people. Our students, I believe, I very fortunate to be exposed to the opportunity to learn about diverse cultures and holidays. I take pride in the fact that as a 1st grade teacher I have the freedom to educate my students about Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Ramadan, and many other holidays throughout the school year. I enjoy the opportunity to show my students that Holidays mean more than just the presents and the food. I take that opportunity by heart and really try my best to show my students that the world is a place for everybody and everybody in the USA is free to celebrate their holidays in their own personal and unique way.
I am proud of my school but in the same time I have to opportunity to work at two additional public schools where the administrators have chosen not to educate their students about World Holidays and Traditions. I found that to be alarming and depressing. Recently as I taught my after school class, I ask the students the question what do they know about Thanksgiving. I did not ask whether or not they celebrate it or whether or not their school celebrates it, I just simply wanted to know if the students were aware of the story behind Thanksgiving. For my disappointment very few of the 15 third graders knew what Thanksgiving is all about, beyond the turkey and the gravy. Most of them told me that their family gets together to eat turkey and pumpkin pie. I found it to be sad that third grade students would not know the story of the First Thanksgiving and where the holiday originated from.
In the Holiday Season I hope that my student will learn about each culture’s traditions and celebrations; I hope that I will be able to educate my students about the history behind each holiday and give them a little bit of knowledge about this big world we all live in, because after all is Thanksgiving only about the turkey and the gravy or is their more to it than that? I wonder!