A priest and A rabbi walk into a bar...

I'm almost done teaching the unit on Mexican culture and just yesterday assigned one of my favorite yearly projects. I teach the kids about El Dia de los Muertos and then we build our own ofrenda (an altar of remembrance for departed loved ones) made up of writings and photographs contributed by each child. The students write about a relative or pet who has passed away, or a friend who has moved away, or they talk to a parent and the parent tells them about an ancestor. Over the years that I've given the assignment I've found some of the student's submissions to be poignant (a grandparent who had lived with the family and taught the child to speak Yiddish), some funny (a pet parakeet that my student accidentally sat on, a great grandparent who patented the machine that imprints the design on oreos), and all very sweet.  So I read the books and gave out the assignment and while I was giving the assignment, my student teacher walked out of the room.  I figured that she was uncomfortable because she is an Orthodox Jew and the holiday has both Pagan and Christian origins (like halloween). Sure enough, when the kids were at p.e. today she said that she wanted to talk about it because it made her uncomfortable and she thought that some of the kids might feel uncomfortable too. I reminded her that we remove any mention of a deity or religious context from the ofrenda and let her know that this is an assignment that every year elicits emails of thanks from families for affording them the context in which to talk with their kids about their families, their feelings, etc.  I told her that in 5 years, only one 2nd grader (all of the second grade teachers do this project) objected for religious reasons (fundamentalist Christian) and that this student was excused from the project by her teacher.....I told her that while specific mention of G-d and religious symbols were removed from the project, that it would be inauthentic to teach about Mexican culture and pretend that it's not a catholic country or that the mix of Roman Catholocism and polytheistic beliefs don't permeate so many aspects of the culture. I told her that she was certainly not required to participate in the project but that in the larger context she needs to figure out how she's going to deal with these issues if she decides to apply for jobs in public schools - because these things come up all the time. She was still pushing back on it and I felt my face getting hot and my blood boiling and... why was I getting so upset?  I've been thinking about it all evening. What buttons of mine was she pushing?  On the one hand there's the piece about the rigidity of her religious practice...it's in part what kept me for so long from connecting myself in a deeper way to Judaism...on the other  hand there's the part of me that always feels like a "bad Jew" in the face of someone who makes it a much bigger priority....maybe it's the way that she tried to play it off like she was concerned about the students (oh yeah, and she said, "I talked to one of my roommates last night and she said it would make her uncomfortable too.") when it turned out to really be about her own beliefs...blah blah blah.  Funny how she didn't have these concerns when a parent came in to make Rosh Hashanah cards with the kids.....Rant Rant Rant Rave Rave Rave...