NEW YORK (WBEN) -- A New York school district has dropped the use of “Jingle Bells” from being used within its curriculum over its “questionable past.”
The Brighton Central School District, located in Monroe County, said it would not use the holiday tune at Council Rock Elementary School in favor of others because it was first performed in minstrel shows where white actors performed in blackface.
In a letter to school families, Brighton Superintendent Kevin McGowan assured that the move wasn’t “cancel culture at its finest” or “liberalism gone amok,” as he said some suggested.
“Nobody has said you shouldn’t sing ‘Jingle Bells’ 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,” McGowan said. “We were not and are not even discussing the song and its origins, whatever they may be. This was very simply a thoughtful shift made by thoughtful staff members.”
McGowan continuously lauded his educators for their “smart, thoughtful” work in bringing the song’s apparent origins to light and discussing them.
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The superintendent also denoted that the song wouldn’t likely have played a part in their curriculum anyway. It was included alongside other songs with “questionable origins” like “Ching a Ring Chaw” and “Shoe Fly.”
“The teachers have never taught about the song in any way when it was being used then or in the midst of deciding not to use it. In other words, suggestions that this situation is somehow being used as a way to indoctrinate children just doesn’t make sense either,” said McGowan. “It is as simple as this, we are using different songs, and we are not teaching about their history at this level.”
A Boston University professor researched the song’s origins in 2017, saying it was an “example of a common misreading of much popular music from the nineteenth century in which its blackface and racist origins have been subtly and systematically removed from its history.”
The superintendent closed out his letter posing questions to those on the other side of the controversy.
“If there is ever a question as to whether or not something might be experienced differently by someone else, shouldn’t we be respectful of that? Is singing the song “Jingle Bells” so important that it outweighs the question about its past or its potential to not be inclusive in a variety of ways. If many, many songs are available to accomplish the same objective, then why wouldn’t we use those songs?”
“I think our teachers answered that question very thoughtfully and I’m proud of their work,” McGowan closed.
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