I remember when I was a child in the NYC Public School System, around this time of year; the teachers would have their classes make holiday ornaments. Now being a public school, there were quite a few different religions in any one class at any one time. But whatever our religious practices were, we were asked to make an ornament that reflected our holidays. Each student, with crayons, paper, scissors, glue, glitter, etc, constructed an ornament that reflected our own cultures and religions. Then each of us would get to stand up in front of the class and tell the others about their holiday and what the ornaments meant for us. They were all displayed in the classroom until the Christmas holiday recess, when we got to take them home. Each year when I was in elementary school, we had this yearly ritual. It was a great way to teach each of us about other religions and cultures without proselytizing or preaching. It was great. It made us excited about the holiday season. It was such fun! We learned that there was a world outside our own homes and our own families. I believe it made us a more open and tolerant group of kids. It made us open to new ideas and people different than ourselves.

Civics. Remember civics class? How to live in the world and be good citizens of the world was what we were taught in civics class. We were taught about the world around us and how to treat each other in public and at home. We learned how to address an envelope, how to write a letter, how to answer the telephone. Remember learning about UNICEF and collecting cans of food for the starving children in Bangladesh? Remember watching films of Dr .Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech in assembly? We made posters for National Brotherhood Week. Every year. We planted a tree every Arbor Day.

Now I’m not too naïve to believe that this made us a society of diversity loving, open minded adults. We still were influenced by the adults that raised us and the society we lived in. There were still serious social issues going on when I was a child in the 1960’s. They were turbulent and scary times to be a kid.

But now, those same kids, now adults and parents themselves, have objected to every expression of religious display, have eliminated civics and social studies classes (world studies…. a very watered down version)in the school systems,  and music and art classes have been cut from most school curriculums. Teachers’ hands are tied at every juncture, cutting budgets, overcrowding classes, censoring books, etc. Those same children of the 60’s, the “Flower children”, have eliminated Brotherhood Week, Arbor Day and United Nations Day from the school year. What happened? When did the Flower children turn into such a narrow-minded and conservative generation of people, fearful and judgmental of those cultures and religions different from our own? When did we start raising our children to be intolerant of others? I thought we were the generation that was going to change the world. The generation that was going to show all those generations that came before us, how to live in a world of love and tolerance. What happened to civics class?