Why one school district dropped 'Jingle Bells' from curriculum

[Jilly_in_VA]

Kevin McGowan, superintendent of Brighton Central Schools in Rochester, N.Y., posted a thoughtful letter (see below) on the district website about why his district is no longer teaching “Jingle Bells.”

“Jingle Bells,” as many people know, is one of the best-known American songs in the world, often associated with Christmas, though it has nothing to do with the holiday.

It was first published in 1857 — under the title “One Horse Open Sleigh” — by James Lord Pierpont, a songwriter born in Boston to an abolitionist family but who moved to Georgia and took up the Confederate cause. He served in a Confederate regiment and wrote songs including “Strike for the South,” as well as minstrel songs.

At a time when many school districts are moving toward being more inclusive and modern in their curriculum offerings, Brighton Schools decided recently to change some of the songs young children are taught. McGowan explains in the letter why “Jingle Bells” is one of the songs no longer being taught now, writing: “This wasn’t ‘liberalism gone amok’ or ‘cancel culture at its finest’ as some have suggested.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2021/12/29/school-district-drops-jinglebells-curriculum/
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Merely idiocy run amok

[ProfessorGAC]

1. Seems Weak

And a "statement" with little point.
Surely, there were better things on which to focus.

[jimfields33]

2. +1

I don’t think this is helpful at all.

[Sneederbunk]

3. Just wait until he finds out Francis Scott Key owned slaves.