>>>Public schools are for all kids, and when they tacitly establish one religion over others, they're telling the other kids that they're are not as important as the ones whose religion has been chosen.
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>Depends when it started. If it's been happening for years, then it's a Tradition. If it began last month, then I agree it's inappropriate.

Well, racially segregated schools were a long-standing tradition, but the courts decided that tradition didn't matter in that case. Ditto when prayer in school was outlawed. There had likely always been prayer (of course, Protestant prayer) in public schools, but tradition wasn't a good enough reason to keep it.

>IMHO it's quite good training for life if kids understand that traditions have value and don't necessarily mean you're not as good if there's no other consequence than a plaque or song. Labels on money for example- some of these things have been there for a while and were put there for a reason. Why not reflect on the history that caused it to be rather than perceive it as a slight. I'm not advocating bigotry in any form but I'd hate to see the world expressed in sterile grey in case somebody can be offended at some aspect or other.

I think it's incumbent on us to distinguish between traditions that have value and those that are traditions solely because "we've always done it this way." As a parent active in my kids' schools, I fought the latter a lot; we couldn't try this thing or that "because we've always done it this way."

Traditions also have to change to adapt to current circumstances. Our grade school had an event called "Donuts with Dad," but there turned out to be a fair number of kids without a dad on the scene (whether not in their life or serving in the military or whatever), so the event was kept, but the name changed (I don't remember to what) to make it clear that the point was to bring an adult man who was special in the kid's life: grandpa, uncle, neighbor. And a corresponding event was added for kids to bring a woman special to them: mom, aunt, grandma, etc.

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>FWIW, this was written by a US University Chancellor in 1978 in his School Journal: ""Pope Paul VI, archpriest of Satan, a deceiver and an anti-Christ, has, like Judas, gone to his own place...." and you can imagine the rest. That was in living memory for many of us here. In 2010 in Pennsylvania I was given a pamphlet entitled "10 Reasons Why I Am Not a Roman Catholic" that clearly was written in similar period by a similar author and still is fervently believed by some today. There is malice and ignorance out there. There's also entrenched unemployment and a middle class being scalped to further enrich the rich. There's a lot going on apart from anthems, Christmas trees and plaques. Seems to me we don't want to start sweating the small stuff just yet, or rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. JMHO.

This kind of stuff is, of course, reprehensible, just like the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion." And, yes, sunlight being the best disinfectant, we should _teach_ kids about all kinds of cultures and religions. But that's not the same as deciding that just because most of the kids in the school are Christian, it's okay to celebrate Christmas and Easter in school.

Tamar