Sunday, October 20, 2013

"The War on Halloween is Not Healthy for Children and Other Living Things"

"In the latest example of small-mindedness plaguing our educational system, schools around the country are attempting to ban costumes and candy on what is surely one of most kids’ favorite days of the year. The excuses range from vague concerns about “safety” to specific worries about food allergies to—get this—fears of breaching the wall of separation between church and state."
But whatever the motivation, the end result is the same as what Charlie Brown used to get every time he went trick-or-treating: a big old rock in the candy bag. What sort of lesson are we teaching our kids when we ban even a tiny, sugar-coated break in their daily grind (or, even worse, substitute a generic, Wicker Man-style “Fall Festival” for Halloween)? Mostly that we are a society that is so scared of its own shadow that we can’t even enjoy ourselves anymore. We live in fear of what might be called the killjoy’s veto, where any complaint is enough to destroy even the least objectionable fun.
Reason dot com via Charlie Martin

9 comments:

Birches said...

Another reason why charters are great. Costumes welcomed (no masks).

We stopped being able to dress up for Halloween in first grade. They turned it into International Day, so we could dress up in an traditional, ethnic costume.

deborah said...

We never wore costumes to school, but we went out unattended through the neighborhood. I love Halloween.

JAL said...

As DBQ said a couple days ago -- these schools are run and regulated by the loose living free loving free spirited anti-authoritan types from the 70s.

Hahahahahahahahahaaaaaaaaa

Glad my kids are out.

chickelit said...

My favorite Halloween movie scene from: To Kill A Mockingbird.

edutcher said...

We never did that when I was in school.

I guess we were too busy being taught stuff.

ndspinelli said...

We are becoming an adult culture that forgets the simple joys of youth. For kids, Halloween is even better than Christmas.

virgil xenophon said...

Growing up in a small midwestern college town in the 50s I can't specifically remember if our Univ Lab school had any special celebrations/decorations but all the faculty children dressed in costume and went around university housing (an isolated area) trick or treating, then, many of us were taken by our parents to the town square where all the towns children paraded in costume around it with the HS and Jr high Bands and torch-lights--the side-walks packed with parents and onlookers and with store-fronts decorated--as Biden would say, it was a BFD! Afterwords my parents took me to my grand-parents a few blocks off the town square where we ate and my Grand-Mother would give me a shiny silver dollar in honor of the occasion..

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

Maybe this year we'll give out cans of soda or maybe just bags of sugar.

Methadras said...

When are people going to understand that once the statist leftist government apparatus begins the process of bleaching the culture, this is what you get? An incrementally collective wiping of all traditions over time, sooner that later, and with no going back because they will eventually ban them outright without negotiation.