That’s why I specified (though I did not define) a “significant number of people.”
No elected school board that actually runs the schools- maybe an advisory Board with members appointed by the borough presidents and mayor. Since 2002 or so , the Department of Education , a mayoral agency , has run the schools and the head ( I think the title is Chancellor) is appointed by the mayor.
In NYC we do everything differently!
If the demographics dictate it as a reasonable accommodation, then sure.
“American students”? No. NYC students, maybe. If the demographics dictate it, it makes sense. Hard to imagine that NYC, being as big and diverse as it is, doesn’t have a sizable Muslim demographic in the schools.
It’s a local issue that should be decided locally. There is no holiday that is federally mandated in public schools.
OP: Why did you phrase this as an “American” issue? It certainly makes one think that you believe Muslims are somehow not part of America in the same way Christians and Jews are.
When I went to school in Montreal, schools were closed on Jewish holidays. That’s because in my school, at least 50% of the students were Jewish and would have been absent anyway.
I could certainly see similar situations occur in some parts of New York City, say.
In most jobs, the employer sets the holiday schedule, not the employees. Even with fairly liberal PTO policies, time off must be requested in advance, and approved by a supervisor. It’s also a common practice, in professional jobs at least, to get someone to cover for you while you’ll be out of the office.
So how could a situation exist where 80% simply not show up on Religious holiday X? Wouldn’t that be gross insubordination?
I grew up (and went to public elementary and high school) in a town with a significant Jewish population, and we got Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur off from school. The problem was when teachers assigned double homework over the High Holy Days because they assumed we’d have a ton of extra time to do it, when in fact for those of us who were Jewish, the opposite was the case. (The synagogue services where we went for High Holy Days services ran most of the day, on top of prep for home holiday celebrations, visiting relatives from out of town, etc.)
At least they wouldn’t schedule exams on major Jewish holidays, though - that was actually an issue for some people when I was in grad school.
I wished to limit the discussion to public schools in the United States. Obviously it is reasonable that for public schools in Saudi Arabia or Egypt that it would be reasonable for students to get Islamic holidays off from school.
Students are not employees.
Beyond that, even if you limited the issue to faculty, the sort of authoritarian declaration is hardly conducive to good employee relations. There is a reason that Christmas is already a day off, despite such frivolity being condemned by the Puritans, Baptists, and related Calvinist influenced groups. As more Catholic and Lutheran immigrants brought their traditions to the U.S., a majority of employees, (and employers), chose to take the day off (for whatever reason) and it simply became accepted practice to give it off. In the Rust Belt, particularly among manufacturing companies, Good Friday has been a day off for many years. It just make better sense to let the (mostly recent immigrant, mostly Catholic) work force take the day rather than stir up animosity over a loss of one day’s production.
Getting all huffy about “insubordination” is a sure fire way to lower employee morale and encourage unionization.
I was referring to the teachers, when doreen stated that 80% wouldn’t show up. How is that possible? Why would a principal or other supervisor approve 80% of her staff being off on the same day? Is it due to Federal law, State law, or possibly union contract? Serious question.
Anyway, we used to get Good Friday off, but that went away more than 10 years ago. My spouse’s company got rid of MLK Day this year. In both cases, the time was added to the employees’ PTO pool. But the supervisors wouldn’t allow 80% of the employees take the same day off.
As always, YMMV.
I live in a state that was recently ranked the worst in the nation to be a teacher. One year, we had Saturday school, due to snow days. A Seventh-Day Adventist I teach with asked to have the day off, only to have her request denied. She took it up the chain of command, and eventually an email went out clarifying to teachers that “religious holiday” was a legitimate and sufficient reason to ask to take an annual leave day.
I don’t know whether it’s been legislated, but if that’s policy here in North Carolina, I’d be astonished if the unionized teachers in NY have it worse.
How do you feel about American students getting Jewish holidays off?
It is my understanding that the work week in Israel is Sunday-Thursday, rather than our Monday-Friday, due to religious considerations.
Should a Jewish or Muslim teacher in NYC get every Friday off?
The Jewish Sabbath starts at sundown, well past the end of the school day.
I’m aware of that.
Should Jewish teachers get a day off every Friday, in order to prepare for the Sabbath?
And that means what? You fire them? You still have no staff. Assuming you could find enough qualified staff who took a job that required them to work on Christmas to begin with and assuming that you aren’t in a unionized environment (which means the employer actually must negotiate the holiday schedule at some point). And that’s where the problem in Cumberlane’s solution would be - in getting people willing to take a job that requires them to work on their religious holiday , but not on Columbus day or Veteran’s day or Lincoln’s or Washington’s birthday or during July and August and closes for a week each in the winter and the spring which are carefully chosen not to include any religious holidays. For no better reason than that someone decided schools shouldn’t be closed on any religious holiday, even though they are only open 180 days per year out of 260(?) weekdays and there is no reason schedule can’t be worked around the major holidays of at least the two or three most prevalent religions in the area.
Although I didn’t actually say they just didn’t show up- I said they celebrated a holiday and you have no staff on that day. I’ve had jobs that could tolerate 80% of the staff out for a single day especially for a religious observance. No, 80% of the staff being absent wouldn’t work for a school- that’s why anyone sensible would just schedule school to be closed on a day that a large number of people would want off whether it was a religious holiday or the day after Thanksgiving.
Which jobs allow an employee to “celebrate a holiday” whenever they want?
No.
Perhaps if you explained your point?
.
In my experience, Jewish teachers who are that observant teach in Jewish schools where they are not only allowed to take off early on Fridays, they are expected to do so.
In other words, it’s a bit of a red herring. I know a lot of religious Jews and they specifically take jobs that don’t interfere with their practice.
I don’t know. Are you sure they only need one day? Maybe they need 2 days to “prepare for the Sabbath”. Why, specifically, were you thinking they needed a day to prepare?