Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, April 8, 1993 TAG: 9304080627
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A16 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
MONTGOMERY ISN'T BOSNIA YET
SO NOW it's settled. "Winter break" will stay winter break on Montgomery County's school calendar, and "spring break" will stay spring break. Tolerance wins the day.And yet, other issues swirling just under this debate's surface haven't been decided at all.
From the start, the dispute seemed surreal. Consider the issue: By what terms should vacation periods be identified in the school manual and calendar? Can this really be the burning question that has so divided Montgomery County residents, unleashed a firestorm of controversy, and caused some to wonder if the lessons of Bosnia have been sufficiently absorbed here?
Never mind that the schools have been using the term "winter break" for five years and "spring break" for a decade. When news stories publicized the fact last year, the issue prompted:
A crowd of 300 to pack a Board of Supervisors meeting in December, urging restoration of "Christmas" and "Easter" as the official holiday titles.
A misguided supervisors' resolution, recommending that the schools accede to protesters' demands.
The abrupt resignation of School Board Chairman Daniel Schneck.
Attendance, in subsequent meetings to consider the issue, of hundreds of citizens (900 on one occasion), many of whom wouldn't consider coming out for a discussion of, say, insufficient funding of education in the county.
Even the Virginia legislature got into the act, passing a resolution in support of religious holidays.
What's in a name? Obviously, a symbol for deeper goings-on.
The School Board is to be commended for endorsing Superintendent Harold Dodge's and a school committee's recommendation to retain the old holiday references.
But the decision leaves untouched many sources of the dispute. That was clear enough after Tuesday's vote, when a Christiansburg supporter of the religious names said, "OK, fine. But when November comes, we will vote you out because we have enough signatures. The majority will be heard."
Her warning was shouted across a cultural gap in Montgomery County that typically divides the Virginia Tech and Blacksburg communities from many farmers, small businessmen and Christiansburg residents. Many on opposing sides of the holiday debate confronted each other across this yawning divide. Which was unfortunate.
On one hand, cosmopolitan champions of tolerance risked seeming holier than thou. They could themselves be intolerant of the beliefs of Christians who were offended that their holiday names would be rejected, as if something were wrong with them.
On the other hand, the Christian-Coalition-organized protest fed on fear of change and resentment against outsiders - and misled the devout, who should be the first to celebrate the School Board's vote. Respect for religious diversity and division of church and state remains, after all, the strongest guarantee of religion's free exercise.
Thus, as satisfying as the board's decision is evidence that the dispute may not have been entirely divisive and alienating. Many county residents apparently have learned from it, and hope to continue their education.
Along with the calendar, the School Board this week approved Dodge's proposal to send home with students a separate list of major religious and civil holidays. And the Virginia Tech YMCA sponsored a daylong forum Saturday on tradition and diversity. It gave occasion for Larry Shumsky, a Tech professor, to note the telling fact that the School Board was voting on the holiday issue during Passover.
On April 19, another forum - on religion in the public schools - is planned as part of an effort to extend discussion beyond the issue of vacation names. Among the forum's sponsors are the Christian Coalition and a community group that supported the secular designations. Good.
Christian Coalition members won't be hurt by exposure to the existence of religious and cultural diversity and the concerns of minorities in their county. Blacksburg types won't be hurt by exposure to the worries of fundamentalists who see connections between secularization and moral decline. No one will be hurt by looking behind symbols and around stereotypes.
As Golde Holtzman of Blacksburg observed at Tuesday's meeting, opponents in this controversy share many objectives: that their children learn the basics in school, that they learn about religion but without being indoctrinated, and that they learn values. For all the ugly emotions aroused, this experience could yet prove educational.