My literacy tutoring is over for the holidays and so we ended with a party. The class I volunteer with practiced a song all week to perform at the party. What a time!!! I don't know if it's cultural or not, but the consensus was that only children sing... not adults. But the teacher perservered and they faithfully worked on it. And sang it. And there were smiles all around.
What really amazed me was the Christmas tone of the party. And why not? It was a Christmas party. But the vast majority of the students don't celebrate Christmas. In fact, the message I've been getting for the past few years, is the need to be sensitive to others during the holiday season. It's "Happy Holidays", not "Merry Christmas". But yesterday was totally Christmas. There was no attempt to pretend anything but. One of the classes even sang "Silent Night". And then Santa came and handed out presents to all of the children. Yes, some of the kids have been in Canada for a few short months and already they learn the joy of Santa... NOT. There was terror on many of the young faces.
This organization is very mindful of the sensitivities of the students and most of the staff have come to Canada from another country. But I've also noticed a strong push to teach the students about life in Canada especially where it's different from what they have always known. I don't know if this Christmas party was in that light or not. But we all exited with "We Wish You a Merry Christmas". Not the PC party I envisioned.
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