Celebrating "foreign" holidays at school.

• Position: Traditions

Traditional stereotypes of the holiday season limit it to a time to deck the halls and put up a Christmas tree, but the words actually can encompass much more. With a variety of cultures in elementary schools, certain holidays should not be emphasized at the expense of others, maintains Kathy Holen, assistant professor of elementary education at Kansas State University, Manhattan.

She indicates that the most important thing for a teacher to remember is to avoid having a narrow view of what holidays are. "These days, in diverse classrooms, what have traditionally been observed as the holidays aren't applicable for everybody."

People from other cultures traditionally have been excluded with the celebration of Christmas. Some schools have taken Christmas activities out of the curriculum to avoid offending individuals from other cultures. A better approach would be to include holidays from all around the world--including Christmas--in class discussion, Holen suggests.

Learning about other cultures and their traditions is an important part of education. "The more we understand about each other, the more tolerant we will be," Holen says. "Holidays represent the celebrations within...