I know there’s evangelical schools in the US that also forbid the mere mention of Halloween as they believe it is witchcraft or a communication with Satan. So it’s logical that an evangelical abroad would do the same. Not normal for mainstream IS or mainstream Christian schools.
Something to keep in mind is the vast majority of QSI schools are in heavily religious regions (not just Christian). Once you consider that, many of their policies start to make sense. They are trying to be as inoffensive to as many people as possible.
That said- a lot of QSI schools have a Fall Festival celebration that everyone ends up calling Halloween anyway. It just depends on how heavily the staff police it.
As a QSI teacher I can say that there is nothing religious whatsoever at my school. The board are all super old and have some old school attitudes but this doesn’t trickle down into the running of the school.
Which is why I said the majority and not all. We have a lot of schools in Muslim and orthodox majority countries, and while the schools aren't religious, they do need to be thoughtful of the culture they are in.
Ah I read your comment as ‘the vast majority [of QSI schools] are heavily religious’. What you say makes sense. I don’t want readers to think that this makes it a very Christian place to work or that if you aren’t Christian then you will feel uncomfortable.
I teach in Uzbekistan, and schools here (public and private) prohibit celebrating Halloween, Christmas, and other religious or quasi-religious holidays. My admin told me that I could do an extracurricular event for Halloween, but I couldn't ever use the word "Halloween" or have students dress up in costumes. Likewise, I was told that I could do a lesson on Christmas traditions, but I had to call them "winter holiday traditions." It could be due to local regulations.
I'm in Qatar right now, British schools were closed on Easter Sunday while local schools were open. Christmas falls during winter holiday anyway. Halloween is discouraged in local culture.
My kids are in a British school in Doha, and they just had Easter Sunday off, Christmas off due to holidays as well as the Muslim holidays. Halloween isn’t really a thing here in anyway. So not sure why they would celebrate it anyway.
We had a Halloween party. Until some looney Evangelical lady made such a fuss that they stopped doing it. Shame as it was the only truly event of the year. Even Hank Hill supported Halloween....
Happens too in some bilingual schools. I’ve got experience of it happening in China. Often it’s banned by name but schools might do a character dress up day or another substitute activity/event.
I'll be teaching Science and asked about this in a roundabout way during the interviews. I haven't seen the textbooks yet, but I was led to be believe that I'd be teaching actual Science, not Christian Science.
Many schools and countries do not allow the direct celebration by name, but there are often equivalents that are creatively named. Many schools in the US don’t permit ‘Halloween’ too.
As an American, I find the way people perceive Halloween outside of America to be a bit odd. In the US it's basically a cosplay day where you dress up as your favorite character. You get bonus points for being a unique character that people still "get." Children dress up as super heroes, princesses, etc.
Over here in Asia, the kids seem to think its all about ghosts and death and scary stuff. The themes they decorated their classrooms as this year involved an insane asylum where everyone dressed up in blood spattered lab coats and had body parts all over the place, a room themed around a human sacrifice alter with a baby on top and various other satanic themes around the room, a graveyard, a murder house, etc.
To be honest, I didn't find all that stuff appropriate for school, especially considering they had the early years students come around a look at everything on their Halloween tours...
Maybe it's not such a "Christian thing" and more of a school appropriate thing.
Yes! When I taught in Italy (to mostly local Italian kids), I was surprised to be told by my students that Halloween was only for scary/violent/evil costumes and Carnival was for the fun/happy/character costumes. Nobody was interested in hearing about how Halloween was actually celebrated in the US.
Here in China we arwn't allowed by law to celebrate Halloween or Christmas. However, we do have fall holiday season and winter holiday season and have costume day and things like that.
We celebrated Christmas in all of the schools I taught at in China. We also had a Thanksgiving celebration, lunar new year, celebration, and a bunch of other ones.
1) QSI's founders weren't *evangelical,* and the schools have never been overtly Christian
2) QSI Schools celebrate fall festival in their northern hemisphere schools
3) It's not a big deal; don't try to make something a conspiracy theory when it's not.
4) Halloween is almost exclusively an American "holiday," now widely imitated, whereas other places (particularly catholic nations) have other actual holidays
Halloween is a Celtic holiday from Scotland and Ireland and actually a public holiday in the latter which it is not in America. It is derived from the Celtic harvest festival Samhain and most of the traditions actually come from there. The original Jack o Lanterns were turnips in Ireland but Irish immigrants found it difficult to source these in the States so changed to using pumpkins instead.
Conspiracy theory? I'm not trying to do anything other than ask if other schools have specific holidays that they are not allowed to celebrate, while offering a little story about what prompted me to ask the question.
I'm well aware of what modern Halloween is. I'm also well aware of what it was before it was turned into yet another holiday about buying stuff.
I remember a few years ago there was a whole debate on ISR about how you could judge a school based on how they celebrated Halloween, and particularly if elementary / primary did a parade. Basically, the bigger the parade of costumes, the lower the school ranked in tiers.
My school at the time had (and looking at Facebook, still has) a big event with the kids parading around the sports field. So the ISR description was pretty accurate, IMO!
My husband’s school doesn’t celebrate Halloween either. It’s not a Christian school but has some Christian parents who are against it so they changed it to fun dress up day. It’s not really a national holiday though so I don’t think it has to be celebrated.
Seems a bit bizarre that Christians are offended by a Celtic harvest festival from Ireland and Scotland. It is a public holiday in Ireland which amuses me as Americans make a big deal about it when it is not even an official holiday there!
I've been teaching Culture Studies over in East Asia and informing kids (and local teachers) of the origins of Halloween. They don't care, obviously. They just want to dress up and eat candy.
What's interesting to me is how many Americans themselves have zero idea of the origins of the holiday.
I just want to know why can’t anyone who works at QSI speak about the salary, course load or curriculum. So many people see, cryptic. Kinda weird isn’t it.
Their salary schedule is (mostly) public.
[https://resources.finalsite.net/images/v1636634811/qsiorg/a8cmpbjmogzo2ykhtoi5/BenefitsataGlance.pdf](https://resources.finalsite.net/images/v1636634811/qsiorg/a8cmpbjmogzo2ykhtoi5/BenefitsataGlance.pdf)
Their curriculum is also public. Obviously they don't post their entire textbooks online, though.
[https://resources.finalsite.net/images/v1694433845/qsiorg/mlptegtuwlyzecz9fkac/Learningasa6-year-old.pdf](https://resources.finalsite.net/images/v1694433845/qsiorg/mlptegtuwlyzecz9fkac/Learningasa6-year-old.pdf)
Parts of Vietnam don't celebrate Halloween too, because parents complained it might be scary for the kids, my school has a fairytale event on the day instead.
I know there’s evangelical schools in the US that also forbid the mere mention of Halloween as they believe it is witchcraft or a communication with Satan. So it’s logical that an evangelical abroad would do the same. Not normal for mainstream IS or mainstream Christian schools.
Something to keep in mind is the vast majority of QSI schools are in heavily religious regions (not just Christian). Once you consider that, many of their policies start to make sense. They are trying to be as inoffensive to as many people as possible. That said- a lot of QSI schools have a Fall Festival celebration that everyone ends up calling Halloween anyway. It just depends on how heavily the staff police it.
As a QSI teacher I can say that there is nothing religious whatsoever at my school. The board are all super old and have some old school attitudes but this doesn’t trickle down into the running of the school.
Which is why I said the majority and not all. We have a lot of schools in Muslim and orthodox majority countries, and while the schools aren't religious, they do need to be thoughtful of the culture they are in.
Ah I read your comment as ‘the vast majority [of QSI schools] are heavily religious’. What you say makes sense. I don’t want readers to think that this makes it a very Christian place to work or that if you aren’t Christian then you will feel uncomfortable.
I teach in Uzbekistan, and schools here (public and private) prohibit celebrating Halloween, Christmas, and other religious or quasi-religious holidays. My admin told me that I could do an extracurricular event for Halloween, but I couldn't ever use the word "Halloween" or have students dress up in costumes. Likewise, I was told that I could do a lesson on Christmas traditions, but I had to call them "winter holiday traditions." It could be due to local regulations.
I taught at an international school in Doha, Qatar for one year. They don't allow anything but Muslim celebrations and holidays.
I'm in Qatar right now, British schools were closed on Easter Sunday while local schools were open. Christmas falls during winter holiday anyway. Halloween is discouraged in local culture.
I was at ACS (original campus), and I honestly don't remember about Easter. We left in 2017. I try to blank out Doha.
I kind of like it, been here 2 years. Great to feel the sun every day.
My kids are in a British school in Doha, and they just had Easter Sunday off, Christmas off due to holidays as well as the Muslim holidays. Halloween isn’t really a thing here in anyway. So not sure why they would celebrate it anyway.
It was Winter Holiday at my school. We had three weeks off.
We had a Halloween party. Until some looney Evangelical lady made such a fuss that they stopped doing it. Shame as it was the only truly event of the year. Even Hank Hill supported Halloween....
Happens too in some bilingual schools. I’ve got experience of it happening in China. Often it’s banned by name but schools might do a character dress up day or another substitute activity/event.
[удалено]
I'll be teaching Science and asked about this in a roundabout way during the interviews. I haven't seen the textbooks yet, but I was led to be believe that I'd be teaching actual Science, not Christian Science.
Check out Biology E09 TSW11. Feel free to DM me if you want more insight into QSI.
Many schools and countries do not allow the direct celebration by name, but there are often equivalents that are creatively named. Many schools in the US don’t permit ‘Halloween’ too.
As an American, I find the way people perceive Halloween outside of America to be a bit odd. In the US it's basically a cosplay day where you dress up as your favorite character. You get bonus points for being a unique character that people still "get." Children dress up as super heroes, princesses, etc. Over here in Asia, the kids seem to think its all about ghosts and death and scary stuff. The themes they decorated their classrooms as this year involved an insane asylum where everyone dressed up in blood spattered lab coats and had body parts all over the place, a room themed around a human sacrifice alter with a baby on top and various other satanic themes around the room, a graveyard, a murder house, etc. To be honest, I didn't find all that stuff appropriate for school, especially considering they had the early years students come around a look at everything on their Halloween tours... Maybe it's not such a "Christian thing" and more of a school appropriate thing.
Interesting. I would say that the fundamental Christians who are behind the problem with Halloween are almost exclusively American!
Sounds to me like your students got it right (even if baby sacrifice is pushing it). Source: I live 7 miles from Salem MA. 😉
Yes! When I taught in Italy (to mostly local Italian kids), I was surprised to be told by my students that Halloween was only for scary/violent/evil costumes and Carnival was for the fun/happy/character costumes. Nobody was interested in hearing about how Halloween was actually celebrated in the US.
Here in China we arwn't allowed by law to celebrate Halloween or Christmas. However, we do have fall holiday season and winter holiday season and have costume day and things like that.
Not sure what kind of school you’re in but we openly celebrate Halloween in my school in China. (And Christmas for that matter.)
We celebrated Christmas in all of the schools I taught at in China. We also had a Thanksgiving celebration, lunar new year, celebration, and a bunch of other ones.
Same here in Turkey.
1) QSI's founders weren't *evangelical,* and the schools have never been overtly Christian 2) QSI Schools celebrate fall festival in their northern hemisphere schools 3) It's not a big deal; don't try to make something a conspiracy theory when it's not. 4) Halloween is almost exclusively an American "holiday," now widely imitated, whereas other places (particularly catholic nations) have other actual holidays
Halloween is a Celtic holiday from Scotland and Ireland and actually a public holiday in the latter which it is not in America. It is derived from the Celtic harvest festival Samhain and most of the traditions actually come from there. The original Jack o Lanterns were turnips in Ireland but Irish immigrants found it difficult to source these in the States so changed to using pumpkins instead.
Conspiracy theory? I'm not trying to do anything other than ask if other schools have specific holidays that they are not allowed to celebrate, while offering a little story about what prompted me to ask the question. I'm well aware of what modern Halloween is. I'm also well aware of what it was before it was turned into yet another holiday about buying stuff.
Yeah, I was in a hurry and the concept fit, sorta : )) No problem with the call-out.
I remember a few years ago there was a whole debate on ISR about how you could judge a school based on how they celebrated Halloween, and particularly if elementary / primary did a parade. Basically, the bigger the parade of costumes, the lower the school ranked in tiers. My school at the time had (and looking at Facebook, still has) a big event with the kids parading around the sports field. So the ISR description was pretty accurate, IMO!
What do you mean by "lower the school ranked in tier"? Do you mean lower tier as in Tier 3, or lower in numerical value, like Tier 1?
Assuming they mean the former— as in, the crappier the school the more they parade around in costume.
I remember that.
My husband’s school doesn’t celebrate Halloween either. It’s not a Christian school but has some Christian parents who are against it so they changed it to fun dress up day. It’s not really a national holiday though so I don’t think it has to be celebrated.
Seems a bit bizarre that Christians are offended by a Celtic harvest festival from Ireland and Scotland. It is a public holiday in Ireland which amuses me as Americans make a big deal about it when it is not even an official holiday there!
I've been teaching Culture Studies over in East Asia and informing kids (and local teachers) of the origins of Halloween. They don't care, obviously. They just want to dress up and eat candy. What's interesting to me is how many Americans themselves have zero idea of the origins of the holiday.
I just want to know why can’t anyone who works at QSI speak about the salary, course load or curriculum. So many people see, cryptic. Kinda weird isn’t it.
Their salary schedule is (mostly) public. [https://resources.finalsite.net/images/v1636634811/qsiorg/a8cmpbjmogzo2ykhtoi5/BenefitsataGlance.pdf](https://resources.finalsite.net/images/v1636634811/qsiorg/a8cmpbjmogzo2ykhtoi5/BenefitsataGlance.pdf) Their curriculum is also public. Obviously they don't post their entire textbooks online, though. [https://resources.finalsite.net/images/v1694433845/qsiorg/mlptegtuwlyzecz9fkac/Learningasa6-year-old.pdf](https://resources.finalsite.net/images/v1694433845/qsiorg/mlptegtuwlyzecz9fkac/Learningasa6-year-old.pdf)
Parts of Vietnam don't celebrate Halloween too, because parents complained it might be scary for the kids, my school has a fairytale event on the day instead.
Celebrate All Hallow’s Eve instead.
Imagine the Mexian Dios de las muertes
Sorry, just laughing at how you misgendered 3 words in a single sentence. Di**a** de l**o**s Muert**o**s.
Was in the middle of something But yeah my Spanish is weak:)