February 2017 - Introduction to Civics

It is important for young children to be familiar with the concepts of a citizen, a country, civil rights and civil responsibilities. Children should learn how the country is governed in order to  maneuvre successfully within its complexity. Public education offers a wonderful opportunity for children to mingle and learn about the diversity of each community in this country, but ultimately, I have responsibility to shape my children's view and understanding.
It is my hope that I offer to my children a multi-facet representation of the complexity of all social issues. For instance, I intuitively rebel against the clause in the constitution under which slaves would not be counted as a full person-the 'politically-correct'-'civil rights apprecionato' in me said that yes, they should be counted as a full person; the rational person in me realized that this was one of the absolute smartest decisions the north had pushed for, on its long way to limit the power of slavery in the south, and ultimately fight and win the just cause. This serves to show that the linear solution is not always the best, and serves as a justification for the complexity of world's politics. Among the madness is hidden a lot of reason.
The madness that has overtaken the world today has served, for me, as a catalyst to learn about history-the one discipline that was so removed, so distant, so abtract, so irrelevant that I feared, I ignored, I abhored it. History is essential. It is the discipline that teaches critical thought before math or science.

We started with "If you were there when they signed the constitution". This book is full of details and can be used as either a spline or an introduction to the topic of the nation of the United States-how it came to be. The main players on both sides are introduced. All major issues are discussed, and all sides in the debate are presented. On its own this book is no enough, but it is a wonderful stepping stone.
We talked about the branches of government and what a genious idea the system of checks and balances is: three main player, each overseeking the other and being overlooked by the other two. I decided to concentrated on the judicial branch first rather than congress. The judicial branch is not very well developed by the constitution but in reality has developed to be a very complex system with many dependencies and contingencies. I think of it as a giant safety net. Today under Trump it is functioning preceisely as such.

 "I dissent" and "Sonia Sotomayor" are wonderful picture books, introductions to two wonderful, strong women, who through hard work and dedication have reached for the stars. These two women serve as a reminder that the "American Dream" is alive and well, but there are external factors who are trying to convey the idea that that dream is a myth from the past. Life is not easy, there are a lot of loopholes and moments of luck, but sometimes you also have to deliberately set your fishing rod ready to fish for them. "I dissent" speaks about tolerance and respectful disagreement and learning from disagreeing. "Sonia Sotomayor" speaks about remaining true to your roots, to your own essence. The kids learned that the Supreme Court handles tough cases, serious cases, cases with long-lasting consequences, so not everyone can be qualified to take the responsibility, and the nomination process itself is an example of the application of the checks and balances system. To make an abstract notion concrete I brought out the following picture books.

"Separate is never equal" is a very detailed picture book about the Mendez case against school segregation in California. The book offers one commonality with "I dissent". In "I dissent" the little jewish girl, Ruth, travels to Philadelphia and sees hotel signs reading "No dogs and no jews". The little girl Sylvi sees signs at public schools saying "No digs and no mexicans". The United States has discriminated against its own Supreme Court Justice. The United States has the potential to make other grave mistakes. The democratic process was invented to fight all such mistakes.  "Sylvia and Aki" show the parallel experience of Sylvia (the same Sylvia from "Separate is never equal") and Aki, a child of japanese heritage who, along with her family, has been stripped off her constitutional rights by the United States, in violation of the constituion, without due process.  The story is beautifully written. I read it and I recommended it to my third-grader to read; equipped with the background from the pictures books she will be able to enjoy it. We already briefly talked about the Second World War. However, it is important to bring what is familir in a new context in order to establish connections and encourage critical thinking.
 "Baseball saved us" talks about the life of a japanese boy in the internment camps in Arizona. This ties nicely with both books listed above. As a contradiction to the artificially created panic within the US, I am going to bring back "Passage to Freedom", to highlight that goodness exists among all men, as well as badness exist among all men. I don't know if we will read "Sixteen years in sixteen seconds". It is about segregation, it offers us a sign similar to what Sylvia saw in the pool and Rudy saw in front of a hotel. It also showcases that one can achieve anything through hard word, dedication and persistence, which go nicely with "I dissent" and "Sonia Sotomayor".

We will read the constitution and the commentary that follows. This is a wonderful book. The next few books mostly contain snippets of what is contained in these two. "The bill of rights" can be skipped or assigned as an independent reading (probably what I will do with my third grader) since the information is well covered in "Constitution translated for kids".  "How the government works" overlaps a bit with the "US constitution and you" but does offer a few extra snipped into particular departments that the president has in his cabinet so we will read this together. Overall I find these to be very useful resources for younger children.
I believe that once children understand how the government works, this abstractness should be brought into reality by resorting to activities.









The following texts are great for older students, but we will read selected portions and do selected activities now. It is important to become first hand familair with the components of the government we control with our voice when casting a ballot.
We will first talk about the Supreme Court and move on to Congress for a thorough discussion of representation, democracy and republic. I will also talk about communism, fascism and socialism. Let's see how these go, it is a bit ambitious.

In case there is doubt about how busy we are, the school handed us "The trumpet of the swan". I read it a few years back and I liked it. I intended to read it to the kids but the time never came. So voila, the school gave it to us as part of the "One-school-one-book" program. I think the program is great. Out of the last six years we have had only one book that I refused to read. I am not terribly thrilled about this book, on my second reading. I find the book rather dull, and repetitive; a sure step back from "Charlotte's Web". We are also reading "A fantastica fabrica de chocolate" as our read-aloud in portuguese. It is a great book. I wish I had started with it, but I guess it is easy now because we had gone through some hard portuguese books as read alouds.

Because it is February, we have science fair and math challeneg to worry about as well. Boo. For science fair we are sticking to the bare bones principles of science-the five magic steps:question, hypothesis, experiment, observation, discussion. My first grader will learn about evaporation's dependence on surface area. My third grader will learn about temperature's effect on crystal growth. Both are relatively easy, and easy science is the way to highlight the principles of science. So, this year we are not going to build anything, we are just going to observe things happenings.

Piano is going great. The first grader is en route to complete Suzuki book 1. The third grader is en route to complete Suzuki book 1 in violin. Great progress.

The rest is as usual.