MLK Day in Preschool


Little Man's preschool teacher, bless her heart, tries so hard when it comes to educating the kids around holidays. Yesterday was MLK Day, and Little Man must have had a lesson on it at school that day. He woke this morning telling us that if your skin was a different color you couldn't eat in restaurants. He believes that to be a current day thing. When I tried to explain to him that it was a long time ago, he was adamant that it was happening now and that Miss Fran knows all.

Now I find myself in a battle of wondering what is and isn't age appropriate. When I asked my son what dreidel was in December, he told me it was "a Jewish." Sometimes I think kids are too young to understand the depth of things. When I taught first grade we read the age appropriate books (according to scholastic) on MLK, talked about our visual differences and did an art project celebrating MLK. My conversation did not delve any deeper than "we are all the same on the inside." So, should a 3 year need to understand that our country used to have horribly insane and incomprehensible rules that made people sit in the back of the bus based on their skin color? I gotta say "no" on this one. I think he is way too young to comprehend it. Perhaps a lesson on what's the same and what's different would have been more appropriate at his age. I say let me and his teachers in 3rd, 4th and 5th grade further educate them on the day.

2 People Raise Their Wine Glasses to Me:

Rebecca said...

I agree with you - much too young to grasp that concept. I'm sure she meant well, but it was not appropriate.

Melanie Sheridan said...

I agree. My son wore the jersey of the football team we follow to school right after the Chargers were knocked out of the playoffs. He got teased because our team is horrible. He told me "I sure hope I don't end up like Martin Luther King for wearing it." I couldn't tell how serious he was but it's sad that the way the teacher explained the day led my son to thinking he might get shot. Had to do some serious damage control!

Copyright © 2008 - A Cali Girl Momma - is proudly powered by Blogger
Smashing Magazine - Design Disease - Blog and Web - Dilectio Blogger Template