Goodbye, Halloween; Hello Fall Festival

On Monday, like many other MoCo parents, I'll be spending the morning jumping from one child's classroom to another. It's the annual Columbus Day open house, where, for a couple of hours, we get to peek into our child's world at school.

My focus will be on watching the classroom dynamics. But these days, it's the non-academics that has my school's parenting community up in arms.

You see, for the first time, the school has banished Halloween, both in name and store-bought costume, from the school grounds. Instead, kids will be making costumes in class. The annual parade and ensuing classroom parties will exist. Hopefully, though, the changes, will mean that some children don't sit in the media center while their classroom friends get to have fun. Hopefully it will mean that children won't avoid coming to school that day. And ideally, no child will feel badly because their parents can't afford that coveted superhero costume while their classmate gets to show that some costume off.

Some parents have argued that changing Halloween at school is akin to being as unAmerican as, say, burning the flag. (Alright, maybe they haven't quite used that analogy, but you get the picture). For me, it's been a lesson in teaching my children about how lucky they are and about how even something as innocuous as a Halloween party at school can make some children at school feel badly. And school, in my opinion, is a place that all children should like to be at.

For us, it's enough to save Halloween for home. How're your schools handling Halloween this year -- fall festival or costumes from home?