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.

The problems with mass education today

The problem with mass education today is that it was designed for the world as it was some 150 years ago. The FEW instustrial barones did not require intellectuals who can oppose the dictated statusquo; the industrial barones required submissive workers - brainless machines that simply can clock-in and clock-out.

Today the world is different. All industries cry out for creative, independent thinkers. How to find them when the creativity and independence have been delibertaley removed from them starting at the age of 5 in kindergarten!

History textbooks offer an ideal example to illustrate this phenomenon. History textbooks are stuffed with carefully selected "facts", dates, names, etc. What is deemed historical knowledge is memorizing the carefully selected "facts", dates and names.  Thinking about the evolution of ideas, the historical processes and development of social movements is NOT the scope of education. Why? If children learn to question and marvel at the ingenuity of the big stirrers of history they can see the weakess of the societies they live in. This is trouble which even the government of the free does not want to encounter on a large scale. The history lessons become lessons in memorization not lessons in building character and critical-thinking.

Thus, when in January my daughter came home with a "workbook" activity on Martin Luther King, Jr., a celebrated american hero, I decided that it is my duty to show her the dark side of history.

1. We started with reading about the Declaration of Independece - how it came about, how it was defended, what messages it contained, and how daring of a document it was, and yet how weak in its assumptions it was. 
2. We started to reflect on the prejudices of the "founding fathers" by reading about Lincoln and reflecting on slavery and the Civil War. I pointed out that the Emancipation Proclamation was in fact a demonstration of inequality and not a demonstration of freedom. Quite a strange concept for little children provided its premise. Hard lessons are embedded in history.  
3. We touched on the inequal treatment of other groups, women in particular. They won their right to vote through a long campaign. 
4. We are now focusing on the inequalities and denied freedoms of immigrants.
   
   We started with an excellent book "Separate is never equal" which discusses school segragation in the 40s in California based on ethnicity and appearance. Many other themes are alluded to as well: the unequal treatment of veterans due to ethnicity and appearance,  inaccessible schooling due to ethnicity and appearance. All by design, for a reason. When children think of segregation they zoom immediately to the south which is a biased fostered dangerously in our schooling system, to keep the ethnic groups at odds with one another, and the government in power. So, it is important for me to introduce segragation as a general, and far-reaching movement, by design and for a purpose. 
5. We will tackle the segregation in the south as well, soon, again with a picture book. 
6. Then we will read about Rosa Parks. 

Why Rosa Parks? Didn't you start with MLK? Indeed. As I explained to my daughter one day,



MLK was just a representative of a movement which he neither started, nor fueled. He was well connected because as a pastor he was well travelled. He happened to be at the right place at the time when the long-lasting movement of the masses for equal civil rights had grown strong enough to pose danger to the government. The government needed to make peace and MLK was the link they clung to. MLK was nothing more than a representative for a movement that has been growing for decades and that was fueled by the educated among the blacks. No wonder education and independent thinking is feared and was feared. So, yes, I am talking about the actual people who made the civil rights movement possible-mentioning George Washington Carver, Rosa Parks and Ruby Bridges. To ensure that my daughter understood how insignificant MLK was, I told her that he did not do as he preached (nope, his infidelities with prostitutes are not in the textbook, and are not in my daugther's head but a close approximation is).

So, a movement is not a person. A movement is as implied by the root of the word a process and should be treated and represented as such, not lessened by the scope of one man's achievement or ambition. I will go back to immigration because while the creative juices of this country are mainly imported (Steve Jobs, anyone?), immigrants are mistreated for their ethnicity, appearance, customs and accent. In fact, it is often the immigrants themselves who treat each other nastily following the presumption "if I suffered to make it, you will suffer too. no silver platters, buddy.". If you are familiar with the medical field, you can understand how closely related these mentalities are.

Overall, my goal is to show my children that

• we live in a free but imperfect country
• they must know their rights
• they must speak for their rights without fear
• they must question everything and its purpose
• a movement is not a person, but the collective small and large efforts over a period of time of many individuals
• education is power and freedom 

We should not forget about poverty and unequal treatment for people whose financial means are small. So, this powerful little book, will show up again, long before a related Christmas discussion.

We are also reading the Jumgle book which I have never read and which fits perfectly in our work through the injustices of the free world. The jungle is a free world, with laws, but one needs to be educated and guided in order to navigate that space safely and independently. Perfect fit.

Books that go very well with the Jungle book readings are

Jasper's Story-the story of the efforts to save moon bears in Asia. Wonderful story of survival. Inspirational story about our responsibilities to all living creatures.

Wolves is well written as aare most Gibbon's books. It omits some interesting facts about wolves and includes drawings rather than actual pictures of the animals. In order to overcome this I also included in our reading the "The Life cycle of wolves". Both books are accessible to elementary school children and I recommend them

Let's read and find out Rainforest. This is a fairly simple book but we have covered rainforests in detail before. This book served as a very pretty reminder about where the story takes place.

We are also talking about the election processes, another fine example of the imperfections of our democracy. There are fine pieces of literature which help children navigate this new jungle.

Some of our favoties are displayed below.

The government wants people to be fearful. The funniest is that people are willing to fear things they actually want and accept. While this is not a political blog, the theme is, so I will offer by five cents on the topic of the all-so-feared democratic socialism. If you lose your job and want the government to help you out for a while until you get on your feet; if you lose your money on the market and want the government to help you for a bit until you get on your feet; if you cannot pay a doctor and want someone to cover that cost for free, you are using and abusing the social system. If you are benefiting from it, let others do too, even at a higher cost at the time of their need, because at the time of your need it was a higher cost to them.