“Rather than weaponizing school calendars, let’s model intellectual curiosity for our children.”
To the Editor,
The recent decision to recognize Lunar New Year as a school holiday has unexpectedly revealed more about our community’s growing pains than about calendar logistics. While our district’s announcement sparked disproportionate outrage, it also presented an opportunity to reflect on what we value in education and each other.
According to Pew Research, more than 2 billion people worldwide observe the Lunar New Year, including 22% of Asian Americans. This recognition aligns with preparing students for a globalized world. Our children will enter workplaces where understanding Diwali, Eid, and Hanukkah matters as much as knowing Christmas traditions. Shouldn’t schools be the place where this cultural fluency begins?
Zero school days were lost (the calendar remains unchanged), and nearly 2 million New Yorkers of Asian descent gained recognition. They saw their importance reflected in the world around them, and we gained opportunities to discuss history, migration patterns, and comparative mythology—a privilege we take for granted every 4th of July, Christmas, and Thanksgiving, among other holidays.
The visceral reaction to this change seems less about educational policy than about the polarization of our culture. When a governor’s competence becomes conflated with acknowledging that multiple civilizations developed calendar systems, we’ve strayed far from constructive dialogue.
Rather than weaponizing school calendars, let’s model intellectual curiosity for our children. The family making jiaozi dumplings this Lunar New Year could teach us about symbolic foods. The Vietnamese student celebrating Tết might share why they clean houses before the new year. These aren’t threats to tradition – they’re living lessons in our interconnected world.
Our community faces real challenges: learning recovery, teacher retention, housing costs, food prices, and infrastructure needs. Let’s channel our passion toward solving those together, using cultural moments not as wedges but as windows into our shared future.
Respectfully,
Joshua Johnston, Wellsville, NY
