Given the confluence of two major religious events–Easter and Passover–it is a good time to wish you happiness whatever you celebrate.i went to a wonderful Passover Seder with 30 family members on Friday night and to the Easter Vigil at the Oratory of Saint Boniface in Brooklyn on Saturday night.
We must respect one another’s traditions and learn to live and let live.
Mercedes Schneider sends her Easter greetings to all.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Please remember that there are perhaps 200 million Orthodox Christians – Greek, Russian, Bulgarian, Antiochian, Rumanian, etc. – and Oriental Christians – eg Copts in Egypt, etc. – for whom today was Palm Sunday and next week will be Pascha. As it happens, I am married to one.
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Serbian Orthodox in our family along with Catholic and Protestant. The holiday bread is delicious and my great grandmother would hide a dime in each loaf. Wonderful time of year with so many memories.
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Teacherken,
I send holiday greetings to all.
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My wife is Bulgarian and we will be celebrating next week as well. Joyous tidings to all at this time of the year.
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Thank you for the reminder; we have a community in my city that also celebrates this as part of the Eastern Orthodox and i call my friends and attend with them. It is an integral part of our city to have this festivity as well.
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Happy East-over and Happy Pass-Easter. . . . .
Happy everything to everybody based on whatever faith or non-faith they hold . . . .
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Happy holidays to all, whatever your holidays are–&, especially, peace, equality & justice on Earth. In the U.S., that means getting out & voting for real progressives, for the people, 99% candidates. (It is supposed to rain, here, in Chicago on Tuesday. People, don’t let that keep you {or your neighbors/friends/colleagues/relatives from voting–drive anyone there who will be voting on the side of our common good}).
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I am absolutely fascinated and in awe of your posts and your energy. Your voice is so much needed in this world where the whole notion of “public” and “charter” schooling has been so shamelessly defaced and twisted by the likes of Carlyle Group and its spawn as well as the many imitators bent on the same path by greed. It is not really news to many of us that in order to find the cause of a problem, you must follow the money. This notion works well with terrorism too.
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Holiday greetings to one and all. Whether you are celebrating on this day or recently or soon, since most cultures and religions celebrate the arrival of spring in some way. Thank you to Diane and Mercedes and all of the rest of us that work tirelessly in our own ways for education and children.
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As a Mormon, I wish you Shabbat shalom. My first teaching job was at a Jewish preschool. I too have been to a Seder. Although, I personally celebrate Easter. I learned a lot from my Jewish friends and have very warm feelings toward the religion.
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Thank you, Diane Ravitch, and also Mercedes Schneider. I went to the link.
May the darkness that has fallen over our long-beleaguered profession pass and let there be a resurrection of hope and light in the schools and in our lives.
Wishing the best also for both of you, and further progress on your own recovery from the knee injury.
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we shared several traditions over the weekend; the Passover seder was Friday night ; on Saturday I was able to get some more chicken soup at Whole Foods with matzoh balls; on Sunday I listened to a Methodist sermon out of Boston University and wrote to the dean that the music was especially well selected. Then, I joined with my Catholic friends for an Easter dinner and we had two Muslims — a married couple — in attendance. I wish that many more families could share these experiences ad find the joy in diversity and companionship that I do . our little community is not perfect but we manage to find tolerance for each other and patience and there are a lot of good listeners in this group. If you would permit me, I wish to copy in what the dean at Boston University spoke about…..
jeanhaverhill@aol.com
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from the dean of Boston University Marsh Chapel in his sermon: ” For our year long inquiry about spirit, …. is benevolence or good will to others…the disposition which one has who desires and delights in the good of another’. I find that a fair summary of Christianity….Jonathan Edwards spent his life speaking, and writing to prepare for speaking, and publishing both his thoughts and his senses. He stands as a bulwark against any capitulation of the pulpit in the church to anything short of ‘excellency’, glory, beauty, and love.”
I am hoping for a world where we could live up to the ideals we hold.
thank you for indulging me by reading this from the sermon…. it is not that we have to believe everything that is stated but to look for the hope, inspiration and ideals as we declare our aspirations? and this is what I also can find in the Pope’s Easter message. i
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if the sermon from the BU Marsh Chapel is not appealing, perhaps one might choose to read Karen Armstrong’s new book on “Fields of Blood: religion and the history of violence”. She also quotes Jonathan Edwards who was disowned by his own university Yale, just as the Harvard faculty were appalled by his preachings in Northampton MA. Armstrong gives Edwards credit for “presiding over a revolution” as the Awakening “flourished in the poorer colonies where people had little hope of earthly fulfillment. While the educated classes were turning to the rational consolations of the European Enlightenment, Edwards brought the Enlightenment ideal to his unlettered congregation in a form that they could understand and prepared them for the revolutionary upheavals of 1775.”
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Beauty, truth is where you find it. I am not Jewish but one of the most influential books in shaping my world view, actually 2 books are: I and Thou by Martin Buber and Man’s Search for meaning by Victor Frankl.
In ALL major religions one can find beauty and inherent truths. In Buddhism I found meditation to find “God” also. In Islam the beauty of poetry in Rumi and another way of find the “Ultimate” in Sufi practices and in Islam too, the giving to those in need is practiced. In Turkey in visiting with a Muslim family, their yearly income was something like $2,000, it would have been an insult to offer to pay for our meals. So much to learn from our “neighbors”.
I am not Catholic but I find inspiration in the many sung versions of the Ave Maria, in Orthodox, “Come thou Holy Spirit”, In Judaism in the Sh’ma Israel etc etc etc.
In Atheism one finds a critical examination of religion.
I believe that the basic tenet in religions: To do unto others, to learn to love our “brothers’ etc are more important to education and society as anything else promoted by our politicians. The world’s problems have been created and exacerbated by the lack of these basic fundamentals.
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