Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you. Corsages, cookies, cakes, stuffed animals and balloons‑all are part of a birthday celebration at Maine West.

Recently some confusion has occurred over this celebration of birthdays in school. A memo was sent to all homeroom teachers on Nov. 8, 1978. The memo, sent by Mr. Eldon Burk, assistant principal, was in regard to the problem of birthday food.

In a recent meeting of the Administrative Council, made up of department chairmen, deans, and principals, the problem of birthday food was brought up. One teacher had noticed the trouble a particular student was having with all the boxes of food and all her other things. He offered his office as a storage place for the boxes to make moving easier for her. Other teachers agreed that carrying the boxes and finding a place to store them in the classroom is often a problem. In discussion, several of the department chairmen agreed that as a solution to the problem they would make their offices available as a place to store the boxes during the day, as the boxes will not fit in lockers due to size.

The memo sent out by Mr. Burk in no way said that birthdays could no longer be celebrated in school. It merely stated that to make life easier for the student, he could, if desired, or if a teacher requested, place their things in a department chairman's office with permission. It asked homeroom teachers to discuss the problem with students and suggest that they work with the chairmen in the area closest to their homeroom. The information in the memo gave students an option: it did not ban birthday celebrations in school.

The faculty is trying to make life for all of us easier. Birthdays are fun to celebrate. They are not telling us we cannot support our friends on their birthdays; they are merely giving us a solution to a problem, a place to store food and gifts during the day. The choice to carry the things or to store them is entirely up to the student, unless a teacher feels the things will cause a disturbance.