Harvard’s elementary and high schools were open Wednesday, Dec. 24, as planned, but despite the upbeat mood of participating staff and students, the day’s low turnout makes it unlikely that the event will be repeated.
“School on Christmas Eve didn’t get much attendance, but it was definitely one of the most fun school days I’ve had in a long time!”
—Emma Keaney,
Bromfield senior
A sparse 25 percent of Harvard’s student population and less than half of the regular school staff showed up for the scheduled half day of classes on the day before Christmas. The decision to hold school that day had drawn the attention of area newspapers and a TV station and was seemingly unique in Massachusetts, if not the nation.
“I was really proud,” School Committee Chairwoman SusanMary Redinger told the Press. “The day went off without a hitch. Everyone was in a great mood. We showed we could pull it off.” But she added, “I can’t imagine we would ever hold classes on Christmas Eve again.”
Redinger’s conclusion was echoed by Superintendent Linda Dwight. She told the Press that at the next meeting of the School Committee she will say attendance was so low that Dec. 24 “wasn’t a viable day,” although it will count as one of the 180 days the state requires. She plans to recommend that class not be held on Dec. 24 in subsequent years.
Attendance less than 50 percent
Attendance was lowest at the high school, where 122 of 712 students (22 percent) showed up for classes; at the elementary school, 132 out of 440 children (30 percent) were present.
Among the school staff, consisting of teachers, administrators, tutors, and teaching assistants, the participation rate was 43 percent: 31 of 72 people at the elementary school and 40 of 81 at the high school. Superintendent Dwight says the school enlisted 14 substitutes to help staff classrooms, three of whom volunteered to work without pay. School Committee Chairwoman Redinger was present all day, as were Dwight and other administrators.
Redinger and Dwight, as well as students and parents interviewed by the Press, described the mood throughout the morning as upbeat. The staff was creative and tried to make the day “fun for the kids but also make it meaningful,” more than showing up “to just watch a movie,” said Dwight.
For example, she said, four science classes at Bromfield teamed up, making it possible for science teacher Jack Duranceau to stage a series of experiments for 22 students in the chemistry room with the assistance of three colleagues. Volunteer Rev. Gregory Schmidt of the Congregational Church taught a foreign language class. At the elementary school, students engaged in activities at stations staffed by adults. Sixth-graders, for example, had the opportunity to do math work featuring origami and haiku poetry and, in one instance, marshmallows.
A fun day
Senior Emma Keaney told a Press reporter that she attended school because she didn’t have anything else planned and “thought it would be a fun day.”
“It was normal in the sense that class times went as planned, switching classes every 25 minutes. It was different because we didn’t do actual work in many of the classes, at least the senior classes,” she said. “School on Christmas Eve didn’t get much attendance, but it was definitely one of the most fun school days I’ve had in a long time!”
Senior Ryan Robinson said there were no more than five students in any of the classes he attended, which included underclassmen. “Nothing really normal happened,” he said. “Mr. Duranceau gave chemistry demos; I didn’t have a sub in [calculus]…[In statistics,] the five of us that showed up did a stat-related sporcle. In ancient medieval we watched a crash course video, and in English we watched a Ted Talk. … The 24th was just like another half day before vacation: The teachers passed the time semi-educationally, and the kids stayed their allotted four hours.”
Two students who stayed away attributed their decision to family tradition or travel plans, not to religious observance. Junior Luca Basile said that when her family “realized that there was not much benefit in attending school that day because of low student and faculty attendance, we decided to get a head start on our drive to Florida for vacation.” Grace Carlson, also a junior, said she didn’t attend because she was used to spending the day getting ready for Christmas with her family. Of the six Bromfield students interviewed for this article, none mentioned religion as a factor in their decision to attend or skip class.
As normal as possible
The emphasis was on making the day as “normal” as possible, said Dwight. Students in math classes did “something related to math.” English classes did English; language classes did languages; science classes did science. No new assignments were given, “as would be true of any last day before a holiday.” Any assignments meant to be worked on over vacation would have been made and discussed before Dec. 24.
“I’m glad it’s over,” said Dwight. Putting the day together took an enormous amount of work, she explained, including the production of a video, holding special assemblies, scheduling by school principals of teachers and classrooms, time spent by faculty in meetings, and outreach to elementary school parents to forecast attendance and plan classes accordingly.
“Everyone had a great attitude. … There was a lot of positive energy,” Dwight told the Press. But given the low attendance at both schools, it was not an “educationally viable day.” Nor was it economical. The additional cost of hiring substitutes was $1,050. “We ran all our buses, and one bus had one student on it,” Dwight said.
A worthwhile experiment
Dwight says she will recommend that in future years, winter vacation would simply begin on Dec. 24, noting that for most people the day itself is not considered religious. Still, she thinks the experiment was worthwhile. The schools have a core belief in respecting diverse views, she said. The “attitude of the day” was that “each family has the right to make its own decision,” she added. “What we found was that what was very important in one family had a different level of importance in another family. … I imagine that each family had … the potential for interesting conversations around their values, and that’s not a bad thing.”
The decision to hold classes on religious holidays, including the day before Christmas, was made by the School Committee in 2010 and reaffirmed this spring. Christmas Day was not affected, because it is a federal holiday as well as a religious one. But the School Committee and the administration were aware that Dec. 24 could be a thorny question, because the day and evening have religious significance for many Christians, while others use the day for travel or family activities. While the policy permits, and even encourages, students to miss school to participate in religious events or even nonreligious family traditions, there was always a concern that low attendance on any particular day would diminish its educational value.
In the years from 2010 to 2013, Dec. 24 fell either on a weekend or on days when winter break had already begun. Not until this year did the date fall on a day when school was still in session. And that brought the issue to a head. This past spring the School Committee debated whether to treat the day like other religious holidays. In the end, after rehashing the pros and cons, the board voted to “hold true” to the spirit of the 2010 vote and to include it as a regular school day in its 2014-2015 calendar.
Results of this year’s experiment will be discussed at the next School Committee meeting on Jan. 12. Changes to school policy are likely to follow.
Bromfield senior Emily Erdos contributed to this article.
