Thursday, May 21, 2009

Maybe my standards are too high...

I meant to post about this earlier, and forgot, what with the super piddling and giant headed BK king to talk about.

You know how I was saying a few posts ago how I love to look things up, and how this was encouraged in my household growing up? Well, if OTHER people took it as seriously as I do, then my child might not have been misinformed about Cinco de Mayo.

I walked into Cooper's classroom on the FIFTH OF MAY(which is what Cinco de Mayo means after all) to pick him up and saw that the class had apparently celebrated by decorating a large cut out of a skull with flowers.

"Hmmm...that seems an awful lot like a skull one would use to celebrate Day of the Dead, not Cinco de Mayo" says me inside my head. But I was distracted then by Cooper and the general frivolity that ensues when he realizes that yes indeed, I showed up yet again to take him home. He rushes out to grab his lunchbox from his cubby, waving his little hand at everyone yelling "Bye guys" at the top his lungs. He then runs down the hall to say good bye to the babies in the infant room and marches up the stairs and out the front door. This kid is all business when it is time to go home. We might pause to say good bye to the fish in the tank just inside the front door too.

So it wasn't until drop off the next day that I noticed the sign that was hung above the big skull that read "Cinco de Mayo means Day of the Dead in Spanish".

Uh, no it doesn't. Even I, a person with no education in the Spanish language other than learning to count to 10 on Sesame Street, knows it means 5th of May.

It was an outside drop off day that morning, meaning the weather is now nice enough to start the day off on the playground. So I went back out to say good bye and said to the head teacher "Aisha, someone needs to discover wikipedia. Cinco de Mayo is not the same as the Day of the Dead. Not at all. Not even remotely. Different days, different times of the year."

Aisha politely shook her head, denied any involvement and declared "I was not in that morning, it wasn't my project." I then declared that I was glad Cooper was too young to actually have absorbed and remember any of this, and that I hoped in November I would find a proper Day of the Dead celebration going on.

My point of all of this is in the day and age of such easy access to information, I kind of hoped that even my day care center would get the basic facts right about certain things. I am not Mexican or remotely Hispanic, but I know the difference between these holidays.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

What is the number on your Hispanic population there? No matter. You are correct, it should have been correct - are these future teachers?

MidLifeMama said...

These ARE teachers. Graduated with degrees in education teachers. These are not students working at the center.

Chip said...

Oh dear lord... what pinheaded nitwit said Cinco de Mayo is the Day of the Dead? El Día de los Muertos is analogous to All Saints Day only much much cooler cuz of the skulls and crazy stuff about the dead actually coming back.

5th of Mayonnaise maybe? Find that dolt and just shake your head sadly at them and then wonder how many others who knew it was wrong merely walked past?

I grew up in Ct... took Spanish there... can still get terribly lost in seconds of exposure to native Spanish speakers speaking natively (but they often toss in English words just to trick me into thinking I ought to listen)...

NIT WITS... nitwits.

Chip said...

Right... a bit of irony. I asked the Boy (who in his defense is only 13 and was playing World of Warcraft when I asked) what Cinco de Mayo meant...

Guess what he said?

Audubon Ron said...

AAAA-mazing. Everyone knows Cinco de Mayo is the day the ship the Mayo sunk in a Hurricane when travelling with Christopher Columbus. The Nina, the Pinta the Santa Maria and the Mayo.

No?