Religion in the schools

This week was Zachary's turn as "star of the week" at school. They rotate through each of the kids during the school year, and each day of the selected week, the "star" gets to do something special. Over the weekend (or more accurately, mostly Monday morning at 6:30 am), we helped him assemble a giant poster full of things that he likes: books, movies, things to do outside, etc. Every day of the week we learned about his activities: he got to choose a friend to have special snack time with, his favorite book (this week at least - a fine Chanukah present from Uncle B and Aunt J) was read to the class, and so on.

On Friday, the family of the "star" is invited to come in and share something - and with Chanukah being celebrated this week, Meh did double duty, introducing the class (Z is the only Jewish kid) to the menorah, dreidel, and other Chanukah traditions. I was particularly impressed with both her kindergarten-level rendering of the story and the kids' continuous concern/questions about the fact that the Chanukah candles don't stay lit for eight days straight - Meh made some references to the actual eternal lights found in synagogues, but it's certainly a good point that the main miracle of the holiday isn't really demonstrated (more the opposite; Chanukah candles often don't even last a half hour!) by the holiday's primary symbol. Happy "star" week to Z, hope he enjoyed his special week at school!