Where are the celebrations for US holidays?
As a proud American and a concerned parent I often wonder where the Patriotic Spirit has gone in today”s education. On May 5, 2008, Cinco De Mayo, I found myself highly upset and full of questions. My son, a kindergartner, brought home a Mexican Flag he made in class. Excited about the assembly they saw, he told me all about what he had learned. The school held a huge celebration that night for Cinco De Mayo, dinner, traditional celebrations and a show some of the students had put on. That day”s events had been talked about for at least a month or so around the campus.
It is now a little over two weeks until Memorial Day, and my kids as well as other students have no idea what that day is. They do not know that this is a day we remember our nation”s fallen soldiers. There are no events at the schools to represent this day. I want to know why my kids are not making an American Flag? Why are they not learning about why we celebrate Memorial Day as well as other U.S. Holidays? Why do they just consider it another day off from school? When did we as a society make this OK?
I believe it is time to take a stand. As Americans living in the U.S., our holidays should be taught in the classrooms. The children should be doing assemblies on these days as well. They should be learning on what the stars and stripes represent on Old Glory. Why are we so passive about our heritage to keep others happy in our country? We have and had soldiers fighting for our country to keep our freedoms and we hand those freedoms over to people who do not respect our culture or even want to learn about it!
Today, I am asking for these questions to be raised in your educational system. This is one thing that our children should be learning about in our great country, No matter what heritage you are, you are now living in the United States, and you should know what we are about.
Did you know how we came about celebrating Cinco De Mayo here in the U.S.? In 1967 at a California University, some of the students felt that there was no Chicano holidays and needed to do something about it. They wanted something to recapture their history and identity and decided that the Battle of Puebla was symbolic and they could connect it to their struggle for the formation of a Chicano Studies program at the university.
Cinco De Mayo is not the Mexican Independence day; it just represents a battle they felt was significant in the Mexican-American War fighting against the French in 1862 in Mexico. Cinco De Mayo is not celebrated as much in Mexico as it is in the U.S.
Jessica Smith
Hidden Valley Lake
