Are Pagan Holidays a Very Good Reason?
The Telegraph reports on what seems to be a rather minor matter, a Pagan parent removing her child from school to attend a religious celebration.
“A primary school allowed a mother to take her child out of lessons to attend a summer festival because the family say they are pagans. Newington Green Primary, in the north London borough of Islington, gave permission for the three-day absence last June after the mother of the six-year-old argued that the child should be allowed to attend the celebrations because of her faith … The family visited the solstice festival that is held each year in Avebury, Wiltshire, near Stonehenge.”
But now a school officials says they are “clamping down” on absences, and hinting that Pagan holidays may not make the grade any longer.
“‘The three days were put down as authorised absence, but we have subsequently explained to all parents that they will not be given authorised holidays within term time unless there is a very good reason for it,’ she said.”
A spokesman from the Campaign for Real Education goes quite a bit farther than a hint.
“Nick Seaton, the chairman of the Campaign for Real Education, said: ‘This is the kind of situation we get into by bending over backwards to try to please everybody. One of the main duties of parents is to ensure that children miss out on as little school as possible and, on balance, I don’t think they should be missing school for this.’”
Which brings us to the question: are Pagan holidays a “very good reason” to miss school for a few days? If not, why not, and if schools are going to start denying excused absences to Pagan children will they start doing the same to Catholic, Muslim, or Jewish children? One can only imagine the uproar if a Jewish child was denied an excused absence for Yom Kippur because it wasn’t a “very good reason”.
With there being around 40,000 Pagans in the UK (making it the 8th-largest faith grouping, so long as you don’t count the Jedi), it seems completely strange that schools would suddenly have a problem making religious exemptions for a Pagan holiday. Perhaps schools should adopt a “cultural flextime” policy as the British civil service has done. That way we can avoid arbitrary judgment on which holidays are worthy enough to merit a day off.
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