A killjoy headmistress has ruined her Christmas panto (Image: Getty)
So it’s -time and the woke virtue-signallers are already out in force trying to send the message that Christmas and Christianity are not what we should be celebrating because guess what – it’s not inclusive.
This week’s virtue signaller in Chief is headmistress of Wherwell Primary School, Andover Mandy Ovenden, who has banned all references to Christmas in the Christmas panto (Jack and the Beanstalk) in order to be inclusive and so that all the children can “feel valued and safe”. Safe from what – a brush with the Christian faith?
Ms Ovenden is worried that children of other faiths will be offended by references to Christmas – but of course they won’t. Or at least they shouldn’t be if she and the other teachers were doing their jobs properly and teaching kids to be tolerant of ALL religions and not to feel “unsafe” around them.
I wonder if Ms Ovenden would have dared to mess with the celebration of other faiths – Islam, Sikhism, Buddhism, Hinduism.
Would she have dared tamper with them so that Christian children would feel “safe and inclusive”? I’m betting it would be more than her job’s worth. So why is it OK to try and eradicate all Christmas references from the Christmas panto?
Parents are furious of course. They want the decision reversed. But I’m betting Ms Ovenden won’t do that because in her head she’s operating from atop the moral high ground.
This decision by her and her teachers are looking like the actions of morally preening, virtue signalling people who are doing what they believe others (up there on the same moral high ground) will praise them for.
Isn’t this just a public demonstration to prove how wonderfully inclusive Wherwell School is and what a fantastic example it is to other schools? Well it isn’t actually.
How can it be a wonderful decision if Christmas and all Christmas references are being banned from the panto and parents are furious?
“Our aim is to foster inclusivity in our school community,” says Ms Ovenden. Well they haven’t and they ought to be embarrassed by the fact their crass, tokenistic display of so-called inclusivity has done the opposite of what it was meant to do to the point where infuriated parents are demanding the decision be overturned.
And how dare Ms Ovenden send a letter to those parents justifying her decision saying the panto was not a Christmas event. OH YES IT IS, Madam!!!!
No-one puts panto on in July, they put them on at Christmas and they are jam-packed with Christmas references. As was this particular production of Jack and the Beanstalk which the Panto Company, Chaplin’s, which are putting on the show, were asked to remove by the school.
“We are keen that all children should enjoy the pantomime and for it to be a fully inclusive event and so have removed Christmas songs form the production,” says Ovenden.
They all would have enjoyed it without her interference. And is the school actually suggesting that, in a country that’s predominantly Christian, primary school children from other faiths would be so offended by Christmas songs and references to Christ that they wouldn’t feel “valued or safe?”
I don’t believe it for a second. And all this idiotic decision has done is cause division and anger. Which is a shame because at the heart of it all is a bunch of excited kids – from all different religions – who just want to enjoy the festive season without getting embroiled in the politics of their virtue signalling school.
Whether they’re aware of it or not what Wherwell Primary School is doing here is playing out the narrative that Christianity is something to be ashamed of, that it makes kids feel unsafe.
If parents of different religions don’t want their children to attend Christmas events they’re perfectly entitled to keep them at home. But why should the change and eradicate all mention of Christmas in the Christmas panto?
We’re forever being told we must tolerate other religions yet Christianity seems exempt from that. Why shouldn’t kids of different faiths experience the traditions of other religions? Isn’t that precisely how you teach tolerance?
Isn’t it what is all about?
Maybe Ms Ovenden might do better to allow her children to see and experience the traditions of others faiths without tampering with one she thinks a minority of parents might not like or approve of. Although I’m betting not a single parent of any faith complained about this particular Christmas panto.
Ms Ovenden might not have clocked – or even like it – but we live in country that is 50% Christian. She needs to have some respect for that.