Can we stop with the Easter Bunny? Look, don’t have kids, I’m not involved in child rearing, so herein is an observation. A key objective in education is critical thinking reasoned judgment in thought and action; the ability to reason well and the disposition to do so. This means, education has to first undo the suppression of logic used to rationalized some holiday traditions for children.
As a child, I could not reconcile the religious Easter holiday with the concept of an Easter bunny that leaves Easter baskets full of candy. How are they related, and if they aren’t related, why do they both use the term Easter? Easter always occurs on the first Sunday after the first full moon of spring; that didn’t really make sense either if it marks the celebration f a historical event from a religious view point, but as a pagan easter eggy thing ok. Don’t get me started with Christmas. One man of significant girth coming down a chimney for all children? Even factoring in time zones, this was a tough one. The photographic evidence was indisputable, there was a different man in those “pictures with Santa” every year. The problem is, as people rationalize to me, a five year old, why the Santa was real. Everything I’d learned during my limited time on earth disproved this concept. Was this to protect my “childhood” or to keep me from busting the myth among my friends? I was left confused.
I was still excited to get a new Easter outfit and happy about my Easter basket even knowing it was supplied by my parents and not a rabbit. The same with excitement about Christmas. Was my lost of confidence in my ability to understand the world worth the ruse? In the pursuit of an Idyllic childhood and the preservation of innocence, is it a mistake to rationalize the holiday traditions for children? The simple answer to a complicated question, critical thinking; reasoned judgement and thought that varies according to the child.
Balancing on Unstable Surfaces 