As an adult though I wonder about the [winter] vacation schedule in my kids schools...
It just does not make sense to me that on the holiday in which we celebrate overcoming the attempt to stop us from learning Torah our schools should go on vacation and our kids should stop learning Torah for a few days to a week.
I am not begrudging them their winter vacation. I would suggest making the winter vacation just that - a short winter vacation rather than a Hannukah vacation - make it 2 weeks after Hannukah or whenever. No matter when it will be given, the working parent will have the same problem they currently have- kids on vacation while parent has to work. But symbolically it does not make sense to give the vacation on Hannukah itself.
And it is not just schools. Adult learning programs are also on vacation now. Shiurim are canceled for the duration of the holiday. Do people really have so much to do during Hannukah that a regular, consistent, shiur must be canceled? Maybe take a night off and make a Hannukah party. Maybe somebody has to miss because they have a family party. But to cancel a regular shiur because of Hannukah? I just don't get it.
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So what you are suggesting is a permanent date for winter vacation, assuming it would be on the secular calendar, so weather wise and light and dark wise, it would at the same time each year, say the last 2 weeks of December. The problem with that is that it would make us seem that we are in fact having school holidays to co-incide with Xmas, which is what is done throguhout the Christian world.
ReplyDeleteNo, I don't think so. Let's keep it on Chanukah,
How could we remedy such a problem? I thought long and hard, and came up with a reasonable solution - schedule the winter break so that it does not coincide with Christmas. I know it's not the most obvious way to make sure that it doesn't seem as if winter break has been scheduled to coincide with a Christian holiday, but it just might work.
DeleteI'm also amazed by this ironic Torah-break for Hanukah.
DeleteOne idea would be to make a break of a full week when Rosh Chodesh Kislev or Tevet falls. If RC falls on Tuesday, then the Sun-Fri that week are off. If we choose Tevet, then that might fall on Xmas and NY as well, ma la'asot... RC Kislev is just too early after the Tishrei holidays, and Tevet would be a good winter break because otherwise we have nothing until Pesach in April.
But we still have the problem with no school and parents needing 'solutions' so I say, do away with this week long 'winter' holiday, and instead between Cheshvan and Adar, we get 4 Sundays off, one a month, the whole country - national civic holidays and add two during the summer as well.