{"id":1182988,"date":"2022-01-03T10:35:14","date_gmt":"2022-01-03T15:35:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1182988"},"modified":"2022-01-03T10:35:18","modified_gmt":"2022-01-03T15:35:18","slug":"superintendent-who-removed-jingle-bells-from-school-claims-it-wasnt-liberalism-gone-amok","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/superintendent-who-removed-jingle-bells-from-school-claims-it-wasnt-liberalism-gone-amok\/","title":{"rendered":"Superintendent Who Removed \u2018Jingle Bells\u2019 From School Claims It \u2018Wasn\u2019t Liberalism Gone Amok\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">26<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fsuperintendent-who-removed-jingle-bells-from-school-claims-it-wasnt-liberalism-gone-amok%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1182988&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The superintendent behind the ban of \u201cJingle Bells\u201d in school curriculum has claimed the decision to remove the song due to possible racist origins wasn\u2019t a case of \u201cliberalism gone amok.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Brighton Central School District Superintendent Kevin McGowan defended the decision to remove the song in a statement Wednesday, adding that the move was not \u201ccancel culture at its finest.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt may seem silly to some, but the fact that \u2018Jingle Bells\u2019 was first performed in minstrel shows where white actors performed in blackface does actually matter when it comes to questions of what we use as material in school,\u201d McGowan said, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/superintendent-who-took-jingle-bells-out-of-curriculum-says-it-wasnt-liberalism-gone-amok\">according to the Washington Examiner<\/a>. \u201cI\u2019m glad that our staff paused when learning of this, reflected, and decided to use different material to accomplish the same objective in class.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>McGowan added that since Jingle Bells is tied to Christmas and therefore associated with a religious holiday, it \u201cwas not likely a song that we would have wanted as part of the school curriculum in the first place. Our staff found that their simple objective could be accomplished by singing any one of many songs in class and therefore they chose to simply choose other songs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNobody has said you shouldn\u2019t sing \u2018Jingle Bells\u2019 or ever in any way suggested that to your children. I can assure you that this situation is not an attempt to push an agenda,\u201d McGowan said. \u201cIf many, many songs are available to accomplish the same objective, then why wouldn\u2019t we use those songs? I think our teachers answered that question very thoughtfully and I\u2019m proud of their work.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As The Daily Wire <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/ny-school-replaced-jingle-bells-song-because-of-racist-history-use-of-collars-on-slaves-with-bells\">reported<\/a>, the song was replaced because of research from Kyna Hamill, director of Boston University\u2019s Core Curriculum, who claimed the first public performance of Jingle Bells may have been at a minstrel show. Hamill, however, condemned the school\u2019s decision to remove the song while citing her work.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am actually quite shocked the school would remove the song from the repertoire. \u2026 I, in no way, recommended that it stopped being sung by children,\u201d Hamill said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy article tried to tell the story of the first performance of the song, I do not connect this to the popular Christmas tradition of singing the song now,\u201d Hamill continued. \u201cThe very fact of (\u2018Jingle Bells\u2019) popularity has to do (with) the very catchy melody of the song, and not to be only understood in terms of its origins in the minstrel tradition. \u2026 I would say it should very much be sung and enjoyed, and perhaps discussed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After Hamill objected, Allison Rioux, Brighton Central School District assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction, claimed the school district used a different reason to replace the song.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSome suggest that the use of collars on slaves with bells to send an alert that they were running away is connected to the origin of the song Jingle Bells,\u201d Rioux wrote. \u201cWhile we are not taking a stance to whether that is true or not, we do feel strongly that this line of thinking is not in agreement with our district beliefs to value all cultures and experiences of our students.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hamill again responded to the school district\u2019s claims.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe use of bells on enslaved peoples may be true, but there is no connection to the song that I have discovered in my research,\u201d Hamill said. \u201cPerhaps finding a well-referenced source for this claim might be in order if that is what (school officials) want to determine as the cause for not singing it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\"><em>&nbsp;member<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/p>\n<p><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The superintendent behind the ban of \u201cJingle Bells\u201d in school curriculum has claimed the decision to remove the song due to possible racist origins wasn\u2019t a case of \u201cliberalism gone amok.\u201d Brighton Central School District Superintendent Kevin McGowan defended the decision to remove the song in a statement Wednesday, adding that the move was not &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":126,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1182988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1182988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/126"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1182988"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1182988\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1182988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1182988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1182988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}