Mountains and Molehills

You guys, I generally try to stay away from controversy. I'm a VERY opinionated person, but I don't want to shove my opinions down other people's throats. But every now and then something pops up and I get the itch. And it itches and itches and ITCHES til I HAVE TO say something....

One of my general pet peeves in life is when people get their perspective all out of alignment; when people make mountains out of molehills. Overreaction drives me crazy...so here I go. Commencing rant now:

Some parents at my kid's school are losing their shit because not all the kids will be doing a Christmas concert. Some kids will be doing Christmas and some will do a concert in the Spring. Everybody gets a concert. Now, I get it. Christmas is a super hairy big deal to some people.

SIDEBAR RANT: One parent mentioned that we are a Christian society. Please note that this is CANADA and in this community in particular we have many cultures and faiths. It is not accurate to say that Christmas is important to every family around here and it's ignorant to suggest that it is, or that because Christianity is predominant here that WE are a Christian society. Yeah I said it. IGNORANT. I don't care if you read it. You IG'NANT, Yuh HEAR?!

ANYWHO.....

You would think that this was an actual serious issue. People are suggesting that the new principal is out to shut down fun altogether. People are using words like DEVASTATED and OUTRAGED to describe their feelings. They are upset that they were not consulted. That the decision was not communicated earlier. That this is tradition and Christmas is essentially ruined. There is an online poll about this. Talk of a petition. Phone calls to the school. E-mails. Letters.

For contrast I would like to point out that our local news ran a story last month about falling test scores in Island schools. A link to the scores was posted online. I checked. Scores in reading are down at our school. The Internet did not notice. Parents were not OUTRAGED. Or DEVASTATED. No one started a petition. Just sayin.

SIDEBAR RANT: The principal is not out to shut down fun. This is not an early 90s Saturday morning teen comedy. Like, come ON.

Look. I do understand. I like to dress my kid up in black pants and a white shirt and slick his hair down and go watch him sing (badly but proudly) while I videotape the whole thing. But it's gravy. It's not the meat and potatoes of what school is all about. Let's get mad about something that MATTERS.