That's why I suggested the compromise. I believe in inclusion. "O Holy Night" also makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up when sung well, and that's a soloist's vehicle if ever there was one.

The dominant culture in Houston is Christian, isn't it? The object of education is to teach about the things we don't know. If you had a 10th grader who was still being drilled in subtraction facts and not getting any geometry, you'd be rightfully upset. The same is true of the music curriculum, though we are conditioned in this country not to think of music as curriculum until the kid gets into the Eastman School. We all know the Christmas songs because we get pounded with them (and I say this with great affection -- I know some of them in Latin) for a month out of every year. Very few of us know the music of other religions' holy days so well. So learning Christmas songs -- with the possible exception of P.D.Q. Bach's "Throw the Log on Uncle John" ;) -- presents no new material. This may have been the rationale behind the school's approach to holiday songs, coupled with a word from the school district's solicitor. Have you talked to them about it?

The experience you had was a smaller version of the Black Like Me/Gentleman's Agreement phenomenon. You were angry and hurt and annoyed by the way your beliefs were put at the back of the bus and blackballed from the club. I suggest that you might now understand a little better how non-Christian families feel about seeing their children up on a public school stage in December singing "Good Christian Men Rejoice" with no sign of another tradition in sight except the secular "Rudolph" and "Jingle Bells", and the lovely commercial paean to holiday shopping, "Silver Bells". Non-Christians have put up with this for many years. That they smile and nod reflects either their ability to brush it off and not let it get to them (the approach I try to take), or their acute knowledge that they are a minority and desire not to make enemies of their neighbors, meaning they don't feel safe enough to object.

If you took it that I was happy that you were upset, you were half right. Hurting your feelings doesn't make me happy. The possibility that you have had an eye-opening experience that helps you understand how the religious minority lives year in and year out, with all those tiny cuts, actually gives me hope in a season whose hallmark is hope.

Happy holidays, Ed. Merry Christmas.

Best regards--
Mary Anne