It always bothers me around Easter and Christmas time how crazy our society and education system has become. As I walk around the school, my school and any government school, I see teachers and children doing activities about  Easter bunnies, Easter bilbies, Easter eggs and chocolate . At Christmas time is is Santa Claus in his Coca Cola colour coded clothing, songs and stories of airborne reindeer, flying sleighs, snow in summer and corny carols. What is happening to education when there is a total lack of focus on the reason for the season?

Would Anzac Day ever be seriously taught in schools by only focusing on the Essendon v Collingwood AFL Football clash? Would Australia Day be celebrated with no mention of Australia? Would the Queens Birthday ever be celebrated with no mention of Her Majesty or Queens Birthday Honours? Yet because Easter and Christmas are religious holidays, holidays that everyone is happy to take off, educators are happy to discount the historical, religious and sociological significance and the reason that these holidays exist. This is similar to teaching Australian History with no acknowledgement of the 40 000+ years of Aboriginal History, or teaching English Literature with a total focus on comics.

I am not implying that the religious/historical/cultural events behind Easter and Christmas should be taught as fact. But surely they need to be taught. If teachers believe that these events are fantasy rather than history, why do they choose to teach the commercial fantasy of Santa and Easter Bunny over the “fantasies” that have had a major impact at shaping the past two millennia? It could be argued that these two events that most teachers shy away from or just ignore are the the most significant in shaping western history, culture, law, science and the Arts. I would be more than happy if the previous statement was debated in schools rather than children spending all their seasonal energy colouring in stencilled sheets of a cartoonlike rabbit capable of illegally breaking into everyone’s house carrying container loads of chocolate  and foil wrapping.

Education should be about inclusivity, examining all sides of an argument, encouraging questioning and investigating fantasy and fact. We should not sacrifice our moral purpose on the alter of chocolate and tinsel (sold at a store near you!).