School celebrating multicultural day, on St. George's day.

[ClaryFray]

Hi all,

Just got a Facebook post from DS school saying that on 23rd April they will be celebrating multicultural day the children can wear colors of there flags and share facts with other children. No problems. Had a quick google as I'm a teaching assistant and my work hadn't done anything, normally we run lesson plans around three days if not actual dress up days. And I found the official date was October 15th I think. Thought it was weird, but thought no more of it.

Read out post to DP who says he won't support it until October when the day actually is because they should learn about St. George's day on that day.

A few of the comments I the schools Facebook page are the same nature ignoring a day to try not to offend. But I think DS will enjoy the dress up, I think maybe it's bad timing by the school but can see why. DP says no, DS will be going in uniform or staying off.

Who is BU?

When the kids were little, their kindergarten had multicultural days, and I have to say that it just highlighted the differences between the cultures. Trying to get some poor child that was born here in Germany but had brown skin to sing a song in another language he did not actually know that well did not impress me greatly. What I liked better was when the kindergarten teacher simply included aspects of the children's actual cultures every day, based on her knowledge of whether they really came from another culture or not.

manic That is obviously not how the EDL would see it, though, is it? Choosing that day is provocative, as someone said.

When I was at primary school
In the 1960’s, we celebrated each one of the 4 British patron saints on their official days. Everyone wore their Brownies or Cubs or BB uniforms, we had flags, and usually a small party in the afternoon with home made cakes. We also celebrated Commonwealth Day, which I think was just Empire Day renamed to be more pc!

Massive generalisation but the English IME don't usually seem too bothered about St G's day anyway...I've never known any particular celebrations for example. It doesn't seem much of a 'loss'.

I'm in Wales and I think if anyone tried to take St Davids day or turn it into something more general there would be anarchy!

@SecretBum I think the renaming of Empire Day is more likely to be down to the loss of the empire rather than political correctness.

I think the renaming of Empire Day is more likely to be down to the loss of the empire rather than political correctness.

I was in Spain a few years ago when they were celebrating their national day. It has quite strong links with the Hispanidad or international Hispanic community being the day Colombus arrived in the Americas too.

When I was there one day had a huge parade and celebration of immigrants from the hispanidad. Then the following day was a massive celebration of Spain and being Spanish.

I thought that was a lovely way of doing it, one day everybody celebrates migrants and the contributions they have made then the next day they celebrate the whole country and everyone is included in both days.

I think that way of doing it is great. But completely replacing St George’s Day with a day to celebrate migration seems like a deliberate attempt to rub people up the wrong way. Both have their place to be celebrated and neither should be erased.

" When I was there one day had a huge parade and celebration of immigrants from the hispanidad. Then the following day was a massive celebration of Spain and being Spanish."

see that would upset people in the UK wouldn't it? one day for 'the immigrants' and one day for the pure English?
nah, cant see it working.

Who honestly cares about ST Georges day in terms of education? We live in the UK and most people here are British. Do we really need a special day to 'learn about England' in school.... surely they learn about England every day in school via studying british history and british literature and language????
I mean learning about other cultures is actually needed.
Enforcing celebration of St Georges day in a school seems a bit to me like having a 'white culture day'... of course celebrate your own culture if you want but in a place where that culture is predominant it seems deeply weird to actually have it 'taught' at school.

So I think your DH is being deeply unreasonable. If he wants to celebrate st georges day with his child hes perfectly free to. Hes not free to ram it down everyones throats when there is absolutely no need. Fair enough for it to be briefly acknowledged in school but for it to be actually focused on and taught in the same way that kids are taught about other cultures is ridiculous.

Even Philomena Cunk now knows his father was from central Turkey and his mother from Palestine, and he never set foot in England.
This

see that would upset people in the UK wouldn't it? one day for 'the immigrants' and one day for the pure English?
nah, cant see it working.

It just all seems very serious. Yes the St Patricks day celebrations are still "Irish" but the parades are full of African dancing, chinese dragons etc etc just people having a bit of a laugh really

you could always go out on a limb and insist on your child celebrating the death of Shakespeare

I think the death of Shakespeare is probably something that all children have been grateful for at one point.

yes St Patricks is a bit of fun tbh.

Anyway about the Spanish thing..mightymucks..you said one day for 'immigrants from the Hispanidad' and one day for the 'Spanish'...

So what about the thousands of Moroccan immigrants? nothing for them then? see this is where these lovely plans have their downfall, they are invariably exclusive.

If everyone made as big a thing of St George's day and the national flag as everyone else does of their saints and their flags, it would no longer be solely associated with a single group.

Exactly!!

Enforcing celebration of St Georges day in a school seems a bit to me like having a 'white culture day'

And you're part of the problem - you see the English flag & culture as racist - despite the fact that English people are of every background & colour possible.

It's not racist to be proud of your country FGS, England has done a lot to be proud of & celebrated (as have the rest of the UK) - this hand-wringing about doing so drives me mad!

I don't want the country I was born in & live in & like to be subsumed into every other buggers culture - there are 300 other days they can have, this one is for the English!!

" despite the fact that English people are of every background & colour possible."

actually I disagree. People who describe themselves as 'English' are usually white, with English parents and grandparents etc.

People of more mixed heritage would usually say 'British', like myself. I don't want to associate myself with the flag waving St Georges flag lot.

I don't want the country I was born in & live in & like to be subsumed into every other buggers culture - there are 300 other days they can have, this one is for the English!!

Again, you are taking it all waaaay too seriously which is why it's no fun and no one wants to celebrate it. Like leprechauns and Guinness aren't exactly what being Irish is all about, it's just a laugh, everyone else is welcome to join in too with their own stuff and that's why its such a big thing, not just in Ireland

I don't want the country I was born in & live in & like to be subsumed into every other buggers culture - there are 300 other days they can have, this one is for the English!!

Personally, as a non-Brit living in England, I'd be very happy to have a celebration of Englishness day, once you decide what that actually means and what you want to do on this day.

It seems to me that the absence of any traditions is down to a combination of (a) not ever having had to assert your culture/nationality in the face of a coloniser, (b) a general identity crisis post end of-Empire, which means you hark back to winning the world cup and the Blitz spirit in terms of national touchstones and (c) the fact that the flag and a desire to celebrate Englishness has been hijacked by racists and has unfortunately taken on the associations of a fascist symbol to many people.

I mean, I'd be delighted to see the symbolism reclaimed from EDL and UKIP etc.

Personally, as a non-Brit living in England, I'd be very happy to have a celebration of Englishness day, once you decide what that actually means and what you want to do on this day.

they could do food stalls with Cumberland sausages, chedder cheese, scones with cream & jam etc They could wear crowns to celebrate the monarchy or Harry potter glasses :p

Personally, as a non-Brit living in England, I'd be very happy to have a celebration of Englishness day, once you decide what that actually means and what you want to do on this day.

Arguing whether scone rhymes with "zone" or "gone".

once you decide what that actually means and what you want to do on this day.

Wave a flag & get pissed - works for St Paddys day.

I'm not sure why it has to get any more cerebral than that!!

English folklore and legends (in which St George often plays a part)
English folk customs
English folksong
English folkdance

Every region has its own traditions. People could research their own local ones. Schools could teach English folksongs. I know of a theatre group that often performs traditional street entertainment on St George's day - there might be some of that in other areas.

*Wave a flag & get pissed - works for St Paddys day.

I'm not sure why it has to get any more cerebral than that!*

Excuse me, we also have Leprechauns and Shamrock

see that would upset people in the UK wouldn't it? one day for 'the immigrants' and one day for the pure English?
nah, cant see it working.

Well no. Because in Spain it’s quite clear both days are for everybody. And the second day certainly isn’t for the ‘pure Spanish’, blood race or purity isn’t mentioned at all and it’s much more a case of celebration of a country’s resident population (regardless of race) and also of the countries institutions and traditions. No mention of race at all, let alone racial purity.

Given that the flag of St George has - sadly - been used as some kind of emblem by far-right groups, maybe the school is trying to redress the balance. Seems like a fair idea. We do lots of multicultural days at my kids' schools and I think it's great. My youngest loves it because he gets to try lots of different foods. My neighbour flies the flag of St George and votes BNP - he'd no doubt hate it. Schools probably can't win either way.

what you want to do

'eat, drink and be merry' for me

You are teaching assistant and you don't know which there to use? Absolutely disgraceful.