Ode To My Mother

At work we have been decorating little flower pots for Mother's Day this weekend.  The kids have been busy painting and creating little bouquets of fake flowers to go inside.  Last semester we had a discussion in our EHE 310 - Health Education in Elementary Schools - course about whether or not certain holidays should be acknowledged or celebrated, particularly in public schools.  Mother's Day was one of those holidays that came up, and the discussion got very heated as my classmates shared their differing points of view.  I personally believe that we should be showing the important people in our lives that we love them everyday and that we don't need big businesses to sell us cards and stuffed animals on a designated day of the year to let our mothers, fathers, spouses, etc. know that we were thinking about them the other 364 days too.  From my perspective they should not be celebrated in schools if the celebration is solely to make cards and other crafts for moms and dads on their respective days because I don't believe we should be utilizing the little time we have making things that are "cute" just for the sake of making them.  I think there are plenty of alternative ways to acknowledge the day that also incorporate some type of learning and don't have children cutting out hearts and making flowers out of egg cartons.  I guess where I am coming from is the perspective of the children who don't have a mother or a father, the ones that might have two, or the children being raised by grandparents or a combination of many relatives.  The family dynamic has evolved over time and what was considered "normal" 40 years ago is quite different today.  So maybe instead of celebrating Mother's Day the same way we did when we were children, we should consider the families that are currently in our schools and decide if that still makes sense for them today.  Thoughts?