Picture from the Switch Witch story by Sparkle Stories
We have a deep love of the celebratory nature of Waldorf Education. We love to study about and prepare for the various festivals and special days suggested by the curriculum (and the Waldorf community at large). For example, Michaelmas is one of our favorites, because we enjoy the story of Michael being brave enough to slay the dragon, which opens itself up to wonderful conversations about bravery, convictions, and standing up for what we feel is right.
A new-ish tradition has cropped up in Waldorf (and other) circles, called The Switch Witch.
There has been a little chatter about it lately because autumn is fast approaching, which means the subject of the Switch Witch inevitably creeps into conversations.
The idea seems to be that the children would enjoy all of the parts of a "traditional" American Halloween (dressing up in costumes and going door-to-door to collect candy from neighbors), without the candy.
Many families who use the story of the Switch Witch want to avoid the consumption of all that sugar and artificial ingredients, and so that night while the children are asleep (or in some other fashion), they will "switch out" the candy for "treats" the parents approve of, such as pieces of fruit and little homemade/natural materials toys and games. I'm not sure what the parents do with all that candy. It seems that some give it away to other families who don't mind the sugar, they might bring it into their workplace for co-workers to consume, and I know that some even toss the candy into the trash.
Why I Have An Issue With The Switch Witch:
Here are my thoughts. If you want your children to have the fun of Halloween, why not throw a party at your home instead? You can then be in control of what is consumed, and the children get to keep whatever they get.
I don't like the deception of going to one's neighbors (or even strangers' homes), asking for candy (that they took the time and money to purchase with the hopes that the adorable children on their doorstep would get to actually eat it), only to give away (or even throw away!) these items.
I believe it also fosters an air of dishonesty for the children!
As they get older, it will occur to them that they have been asking for candy from well-intentioned neighbors under false pretenses, and that candy that could have otherwise been saved and given away to children who would actually eat it...that it has being taken just for the "experience" of the child.
Can you see how dishonest this particular system is?????
Your children are going to get the message that it is OK
to defraud people
simply because the experience pleases you.
I want my children to realize that we should be able to honestly ask for what we'd like, and to NOT take something that we have no intentions of consuming/using. It is very wasteful, at best, and incredibly dishonest at worst. If we wanted healthy treats, and our neighbors weren't interested in serving them on Halloween, then we could simply choose not to take any candy at all. We could, for example, simply stop by to display our costumes. Presumably, we'd be visiting only neighbors we knew well, and so this conversation could occur with the neighbors before the night comes around so that these neighbors would be aware that we wouldn't be asking for candy, but rather still wanted to stop by to say hello in our costumes.
We could also, by the way, supply our neighbors with a little brown bag of our own healthy treats with our children's names on them, so that when we showed up, they could have those bags near their door and then hand THOSE out to our children.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Personally, we have no issues with sugary candy a few times a year.
The way we combat the over-abundance of candy that can come from a night of trick-or-treating is to limit the homes we visit to around ten. This is about the size of a typical small neighborhood, or down one side of the street for a medium-sized neighborhood (at least where we live). This way, at the end of the night, each child only has between ten and twenty pieces of candy (depending on how many pieces each house gives out).
If they have one piece (or so) a day, they will be done eating that candy by around mid-November...or we can savor it a bit longer and just have a couple of pieces each right away, and then tuck the rest of the candy away until around mid-late January, when a few pieces of candy here or there is a welcomed boost as the weather outside gets particularly blustery and we find ourselves cooped up inside more than usual. We've also been known to bring the candy in the car for long car trips, which makes an otherwise somewhat-grueling ride a bit more fun.
I just really feel that morally it's a rather dishonest way to conduct a "festival", and I feel that we can take the celebration into our own hands and provide our own treats if we don't want our children to enjoy the items that our neighbors have happily provided.
Just some food for thought.
No comments:
Post a Comment