What Santa can teach us about Patronage
Education Equality shared a post on Instagram recently, sharing a message that a school sent out to all members of its community. The message read:
Pupils are required to participate in all subject areas and attend all school religious ceremonies.
As part of the culture of this school children are informed about Santa Claus, Halloween and the expectation that surrounds this. We do not permit any other view within school.
Unsurprisingly, to me, the post went viral with comments still flying in as I type this article. Almost all of the comments are full of anger towards the principal of the school and baffled that he would say such a thing. For me, all he did wrong was to say the quiet part out loud. In practice, if you walk into most schools in the country, the only worldview what is acceptable is one that ties into the faith of the school. If you don’t belong to the faith of that school, you have to accept that your child will have to sit at the back of the classroom. Most school describe this as inclusive. Even this particular school on their ethos page, starts with the message that they are inclusive and “where all pupils are equally valued and respected.”
However, I was curious to read one or two of the comments that didn’t simply express dismay. This one caught my eye:
A very poorly worded communication….but I think I know what problem they might be having…when we discuss in assembly the Muslim children laugh & snigger and have no problem telling the children he isn’t real..it is definitely a problem in our school….we celebrate & recognise all
Ah, yes, those pesky Muslims! Although, I believe this is also a very poorly worded comment but it makes for a very interesting point.
I went to a Jewish school and I still remember being asked to remain in the classroom when the non-Jewish kids were sent out to play. We were all warned that just because we might not believe in Santa did not mean that we should ruin other people’s Christmas. I remember sitting there wondering why wouldn’t my Jewish classmates not believe in Santa. After all, he came to my house, though my parents also warned me not to tell anyone.
The point was, even in the clumsy days of the 1980s, the teachers knew how to balance respecting the Jewish kids’ lack of belief in Santa without telling them they were wrong but to also teach them to be respectful to children that did believe in Santa. It was easily and subtly done. And we all got on with it. It never crossed my mind, despite the talk, that Santa would stop calling to my house. Not for a single second.
I still see it today in the school I teach in. There are many children, not just Muslims(!), where Santa is not part of their culture, and most years the child decides to express it, and often not subtly.
It’s interesting to know that the teachers in my school are still as equipped as my teachers were in the 1980s at dealing with the child who can’t wait to tell them their great discovery.
Why the above school can’t deal with differences of belief may speak to the wider issue of patronage — how one worldview is sacrosanct and any dissenting voices should be treated with contempt, and must be silenced unless it falls into the bracket of tokenism.
The school is not alone, by any means, in the paradox of claiming to be inclusive yet on the same page promoting its religious ethos over all other faiths. It renders the word “inclusive” as meaningless as the concept of school choice; it’s a lovely thing to say and it sounds good, but ultimately only works if you’re happy with the status quo. For example a boys’ school fails to be inclusive to 50% of the population; for example a Church of Ireland fails to be inclusive to children from different belief systems. In fact, this is exactly what is happening in this particular school. If you don’t abide by Christian norms, your values are not valued.
In schools’ pursuit to being inclusive, they often say they accept and welcome all faiths and none to their school. The truth is that they are merely tolerated within a context that the ethos overrides any rights of difference.
This has led the above school into a strange situation. They have accepted (and welcomed) a number of children into the school that do not share the values of this school. I have to make some assumptions here. When it comes to the daily religious instruction of Christian faith formation in this school, these children that are accepted and welcomed most likely have to remain in the classroom or be collected by their families. This seems to be the accepted norm of inclusion in Irish primary schools, despite it not being inclusive at all.
I am going to guess that this school, like many primary schools these days, celebrates some of the minority groups’ festivals such as Diwali, Eid and the Lunar New Year. Many schools with a religious ethos also decide to show how inclusive they are by having multicultural days where children from the school are asked to dress up in native clothes. Of course, none of this in inclusive; it is tokenism. However, again, most people see this as acceptable and join in and ooh and aah over the lovely colourful costumes and express how lovely the finger food is and how they simply must get the recipe.
However, enter Santa. If a family does not celebrate Christmas, and worse if they do not have Santa visiting their house, that’s where inclusion stops. This is where this school, and I’m guessing, many other schools do not permit any other view within school.
There’s two ways of looking at this.
A denominational school’s claims of being inclusive are rooted in their own definition of inclusion. The school controls the parameters. Whether that’s in the admissions policy, where they decide who can enrol in the school (a Church of Ireland school can still prioritise Christian children to enrol in their schools,) or whether that’s how they deliver their patron’s programme or whether how that ethos permeates throughout the school day, any practices that are considered to be inclusive are decided upon by the school. A child suggesting their opinion on the existence of Santa Claus does not fall under this and, therefore, it might be fair to suggest that rather than embracing the difference of belief, it is easier to shut it down in the name of ethos. This is certainly what has happened in the above school, which they have called the “culture” of the school. Who decides the culture of the school? Is it the people in power or is there space to listen to the community?
Another way to look at this is through the lens of oppression. I admit I might be accused of stretching this but I don’t mean oppression in the same sense as Palestinians are being oppressed by the Israeli State. I’m talking about, what might be called, micro-opporession. For example, children being forced to sit at the backs of classrooms for 2 hours per week like a visitor in their own classroom. I’m talking about the children who don’t make sacraments in Catholic schools and are excluded from the class photograph on the wall of the school, or whose parents feel they need to take them out of school for a treat so they don’t feel completely left out. I’m talking about the daily exclusions of the classroom in schools with a religious ethos. Children are generally not equipped with any weapons to deal with the hurt of being left out. Is it possible that they feel telling everyone that Santa isn’t real is an act of rebellion? Do we really believe that children want to ruin other children’s celebrations, or is there something else going on? Is this an attempt to grasp some sort of power over the oppressors? Are they saying “We know something that blows the foundations of your power?”
Whatever the reason, Santa can teach us all about the power and challenges of patronage. If we have a patronage that forces people to accept the religious views, the cultures, the norms of a particular viewpoint, and we claim to be inclusive, we have to be ready when a sizeable number of people who have been welcomed into the school, all of a sudden, don’t feel welcome. Christmas is probably the most interesting and controversial time of the year when talking about patronage but it certainly challenges it.
Schools are no longer places of homogeneity and we need to look at the very foundations of the education system that exacerbate the issues that arise when we hold on to practices that no longer match greater society.
A school should be able to acknowledge Christmas without it turning into a situation where people feel threatened that something is being taken away. That might mean that a Nativity play is no longer appropriate but it doesn’t mean there can’t be a school performance around Christmas time where every family gets to join in. I know I’d prefer something like Stars in their Eyes as opposed to watching the same old story of a star in the sky.
While I understand people cling to traditions, we have to look at the context of those traditions, and who is actually being harmed. If I really want my child to perform in a Nativity play, there is no shortage of opportunities for him/her to do that in their local church. If it isn’t happening in the school but instead of singing Silent Night, they sing Silent Sigh by Badly Drawn Boy, is that really such a bad thing?
