Thankful for the truth!

As we move through the calendar each year and the next holiday approaches, we often review what is the meaningful part of the holiday that we want to share with our students. The teachers in school work hard to find new and exciting ways to do activities and relate meaningful lessons. For a lesson related to Thanksgiving, we often focus on the word “Thankful” - and especially on what it means to be truly inclusive. Along with examining the meaning of the words, we try to take every opportunity to recognize and support the importance of inclusivity and thankfulness as they occur in our classroom and in our lives. These are wonderful lessons that we all support.

We repeat this lesson regularly, in pre-school simple terms. For example: one child may want want to play a game in a certain way, while another child might have different rules.  We help them work this out, and hear each other out. From there the children might decide to play the game or they might not but the ultimate goal is to hear each other's side whether we agree or we don’t agree.  From our 1 year old to our 4 year olds this process takes place throughout the year. Inclusivity begins with respecting each other’s opinions and choices. It starts small and it is our job to grow this aspect in each child.  

Most of us were taught the story of Thanksgiving as children, as if it were a summary of what actually happened.  We don't learn about the more gruesome aspects until we are older, and better able to handle a more complete account of the true history of what took place. Over time, ECC has moved away from teaching the "Pilgrams and Indians" myth as part of curriculum. While this practice still persists in many places, it simply isn't necessary. In fact, by doing so, traditionalists may be missing an opportunity to stress the more important aspects of the holiday.  Instead of the story, we focus on the word "Thankful." We don't shy away from talking about our history, even when it means talking about the fact that our predecessors did some things that, today, we wouldn't consider fair or honorable.  This doesn't make us less patriotic, it makes us better informed and hopefully more empathetic and inclusive toward other people.

The truth of the Thankgiving story is of course more complicated than a simple harvest feast. Small children are likely not going to grasp every nuance, but I wonder what would happen if we gave them a general outline of the situation and some dolls or puppets to show what they think would happen next.  Some would keep the dolls separate, some will have them fight each other. My guess is that that some of the children would come up with a version that is much closer to the truth than grade-school textbooks.  

Thinking about what might have happened and then showing them what actually happened allows them to relate their own observed truth (sometimes people get along and sometimes they fight) to the Thanksgiving story. From there we can create meaningful discussions, show them the famous painting that had a big influence on how people thought about Thanksgiving, and explain how later on President Lincoln made it a National Holiday. 

Personally, sitting down for a "big spread" family dinner to celebrate this holiday has always been a bit of a sore spot for me. The more history I've learned, the harder it gets. Being thankful is meaningful and very important, but is that really what the Traditional Thanksgiving means anymore?  

So at what point do we move past the myth of a holiday we were taught? Can we embrace our discomfort and acknowledge the wrong doing in our past.  There was an example recently in the news of an educational administrator who "could not express with certainty" that the holocaust was a historical fact."  It serves as a great example as to why we need to teach facts, over and over again, each time in an age-appropriate manner.  Give myth or propaganda a toe-hold, and they can quickly become the "reality" for some people.  

Some people probably still think the nice Indians in the area decided to help the nice Pilgrims who came to live in their land, simply so they would survive a hard winter.   Can we blame them? That's what they were taught!

As the Thanksgiving holiday approaches I often find myself asking: by sitting down to this "Feast" are we once again lending weight to the myth? My concern is that if we as a society continue to emphasize
only the myth, aren’t we simply allowing the un-informed to remain in the dark?  Is this right?

In a world where the current political climate divides our society, it can be a struggle to be kind, be

open and hear each other out.  It becomes even more difficult when you are trying to communicate with someone who is dreadfully mis-informed. We are all connected to our human history.  Still, although we might not agree, we should strive to recognize the value that comes from being kind, polite and supportive of each person when we can.

Growing and cultivating respect for differences is not an option, it is a necessity.  When we see our students agree to new rules or listen to each other with respect, we smile. As we move forward and think about this holiday we can emphasize the importance of being different and living side by side, we can learn about compromise and about honesty and truth. These are important lessons that are a big part of our history. We can also learn that we love our country but sometimes our county made "bad choices", just like preschool children. As we grow and learn we hope to make better choices for our self and for our country.