Christmas in the Classroom

Chances are that no one would object if a school put children's drawings of snowmen and candy canes in its windows at Christmastime--but how about stars and angels? Questions like this have become pertinent since the Supreme Court's 1962 school-prayer decision. But they are difficult to answer. Unable to define a consistent policy toward what is both a religious and a secular holiday and a major event in Western culture, most school officials have adopted a hands-off policy. They generally leave principals and teachers free to organize whatever parties, pageants and other observances they think appropriate. When the school administration in Marblehead, Mass., tried to become more precise, the result was a ruckus that promised to make the season anything but jolly.

Past Christmas observances in Marblehead's seven elementary schools (total enrollment: 2,270) differed little from those in other school systems. Children made window decorations, trimmed trees, sang carols and exchanged gifts at classroom parties. To some parents among the town's substantial Jewish minority, however, the celebrations seemed too Christian in character. Seeking to head off complaints, School Superintendent Aura W. Coleman met in November with four rabbis, four Protestant ministers and a Roman Catholic monsignor. They drew up a statement that Christmas observances should "avoid using subject matter of a theological or symbolic nature which might in anyway result in embarrassment to any group of pupils."

Scrooge Is Alive. That seemed innocuous enough, but the principal of one school interpreted the word "symbolic" to mean that he should ban any references whatsoever to Christmas. He sent teachers a memo forbidding not only carols and trees but gifts and Santa Claus as well. In protest, outraged fathers marched around Coleman's home at night carrying Santa balloons, and 50 children picketed an emergency meeting of the school board. They carried signs reading SCROOGE IS ALIVE AND WELL IN MARBLEHEAD and SANTA HAS DONE NO WRONG--DONT SUSPEND HIM FROM SCHOOL.

After the emergency meeting, School Board Chairman Richard Farrell declared last week that "the whole thing was a great misunderstanding" and "the program of observing religious holidays in Marblehead schools will continue as in the past." In Marblehead as elsewhere, it seems, the best Christmas policy is no policy.

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