9 replies to this topic

[xMrStrife]

Chinese new year is January this year and my parents asked me if I'll be going to school. I replied saying it depends if there is going to be a test/important lesson.

However my question is, why do Jewish people get their holiday off while, Chinese/Muslims don't. New York City has a growing Chinese and Muslim population so why do only Jews get a holiday off?

I know some teachers don't teach major topics on that day, but there are some that do.

[Asif Mahmud]

New York is but a small state when you compare it with the United States. Nationally, the United States specifically recognizes holidays that are of Christian or Jewish or another religion's descent. This is because these religions make up the majority of the United States. Muslims and the Chinese are a minority in the U.S. and due to that, their holidays are not nationally recognized. Tech is under the United States obviously, and I guess it follows only nationally recognized holidays.

If Tech wanted to recognize Muslim and Chinese holidays, considering the student population is over 50% Asian, I'm sure they probably would have done that a long time ago.

[xMrStrife]

You're completely right. But this country is technically set up so everyone is equally treated.

[Asif Mahmud]

Quite true yourself. Take a look at this situation though:
11 people are in charge of making a decision. One person votes no, another ten vote yes. The ten has the right to enforce that decision. The one, although the person had a say in it, lost.
Even though that person was treated equally in their decision, it was overruled by the other people who had decisions that were just as equal.
Asians are a majority in Tech, but are a minority in the United States.

Ten Equal Decisions > One Equal Decision

[mbxsd]

Can the state (not the federal government) decide to make Chinese/Muslim holidays no-school days? It would be fair because states such as New York and California have large Asian populations that could benefit from having a day off from Chinese New Year or Eid or so on.

[kenneth11]

Every time someone asks this question, someone always replies with a retort along these lines so I'll provide the retort this time: while it's easy to assume that city schools are closed for Jewish holidays because the city is trying to accommodate Jewish students who want to spend time with their families, this really is not the reason.
There was a time when the absolute overwhelming majority of faculty members at city schools were Jewish. Had there been school on these major Jewish holidays, there simply would not have been enough faculty around to provide instruction for the student body. Hence, days like Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah became days when school was not in session. While teachers of Jewish faith may no longer be the majority in city schools (I really have no idea what the statistics are), the tradition has remained in place.
So keep in mind that it's not about the ethnic or religious breakdown of the students, it's about the ethnic and religious background of the faculty members.

[xMrStrife]

kenneth11, on 21 November 2011 - 05:00 PM, said:

Every time someone asks this question, someone always replies with a retort along these lines so I'll provide the retort this time: while it's easy to assume that city schools are closed for Jewish holidays because the city is trying to accommodate Jewish students who want to spend time with their families, this really is not the reason.
There was a time when the absolute overwhelming majority of faculty members at city schools were Jewish. Had there been school on these major Jewish holidays, there simply would not have been enough faculty around to provide instruction for the student body. Hence, days like Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah became days when school was not in session. While teachers of Jewish faith may no longer be the majority in city schools (I really have no idea what the statistics are), the tradition has remained in place.
So keep in mind that it's not about the ethnic or religious breakdown of the students, it's about the ethnic and religious background of the faculty members.

Thanks Kenneth, your response answered a lot of my questions.

[kenneth11]

No problem. Happy to help. Someone in fact wrote a letter to the editor of a newspaper last year asking the same exact question you did, and my reply was virtually word for word what a person wrote in response to that actual letter!

[NickC]

If you ask your teachers ahead of time to possibly not schedule anything like a test that day some may be accommodating and push it a day later or a day earlier ... I mean only 25 out of the 34 in a class would celebrate the holiday... I still remember back in 08 when the Final Exam Schedule was changed due to this. The testing committee needed to hold a meeting to agree that the calendar was going to shift in order to accommodate for the holiday. Even the faculty in the school, which is not predominantly asian, were on our side.

I guess what really upset the asian population in Tech that year was the principle behind the decisions made to finalize the calendar. If it came down to it, I'm sure 99% of the asian population in the school would come to take final exams, but we just felt as though the administration was insensitive to our needs considering this is the only holiday we fully celebrate in the US. Although the attendance was not alarmingly low, it was nice to have a day off and not have to worry about attending school and taking final exams when it's the new year! I for a fact took the day off and spent time with my family

[NickC]

mbxsd, on 21 November 2011 - 03:21 PM, said:

Can the state (not the federal government) decide to make Chinese/Muslim holidays no-school days? It would be fair because states such as New York and California have large Asian populations that could benefit from having a day off from Chinese New Year or Eid or so on.

You guys have it really good. Even though I attend public state university, the last day I had off was Rosh Hashanah where we didn't have class after 6pm to the following day 6pm...while most public school students had a 4 day weekend. I had 2 days off since we started classes in August. CAN'T WAIT UNTIL THANKSGIVING BREAK!