This Election: A Woman, a Duck, and a Bully

After the news last night, my Teacher Brain woke me up this morning, reminding me that Scholastic's Let's Find Out fliers have an election edition, featuring this year's presidential candidates and a duck.

I'm seriously considering not sending the flier home with my students this year, because the only developmentally appropriate approach to take with my kindergartners about whether or not a woman, a duck, or a bully could be president, would involve much too much discussion about what my Super Stars have overheard or absorbed by osmosis from the social media that permeates much of their lives. Equal rights and the affirmation that we have the opportunity/responsibility to elect someone highly qualified to one of the most important positions in our country are worthwhile lessons and discussions to have, even with five and six year olds. Young children understand hope, change, fairness, kindness, safety, possibilities, right and wrong. Many of their parents have described bullying to them as an example of some of the most inappropriate, unkind, unsafe and untrustworthy of behaviors. No one should aspire to be a bully, and no one should tolerate one.  

Five and six year olds won't understand the significance of email servers, foreign relations, or political double-speak, but they DO understand a man joking (?) about hurting their mommies, aunts, and sisters, and making their diverse friends move away or live on the other side of a wall. Those fear and confusion-inducing topics are not welcome in my classroom, no matter how much his supporters try to gloss over or spin them.

My professional judgment requires I advocate for the emotional well-being of my students, determining which content is informative and necessary, and which might be harmful. It's very possible that the simple photograph that is featured in "A Duck Can't Be President" will ignite uncomfortable feelings in some or many of my students, depending on the information and parental opinions they have likely overheard at home and out in public. I prefer to introduce and educate my students to the voting process itself, something photos numbered 1-4 in the flier do nicely. Perhaps this problem can be remedied by a simple trip through a paper cutter for the oversized teaching poster that's included with the pack, while the fliers themselves find their way into the recycle bin.

The only other time I've chosen to not utilize a take home flier from Scholastic was blogged about here. How do you decide what content is appropriate for your students? Do you decide as a grade level?

When Asked by Parents About September 11

It's the fifteenth anniversary of September 11, and as I have done since that original event, I respectfully requested that my Super Star families do what they can to prevent their youngest children needless worry this weekend.

Here's what I included in my weekly newsletter, advocating for my students, their families, and developmentally appropriate practice:

Several families have asked how kindergartners learn about the events of September 11, 2001.  In a nutshell, they don't.  Adults themselves have a very difficult time observing, processing, reacting to, and coping with the visceral and terrifying acts of violence, terrorism, and cruelty which our nation and society have had to endure.  It is in my opinion, inappropriate to expect four, five, and six year olds to see and consider the possibilities of such horrors happening to them, their family members, friends and neighbors.  When viewing or hearing what is now considered historical footage of planes crashing into buildings and people jumping to their deaths, children are unable to discern that the events aren't occurring in real time, in front of them.  Compounding the stress, confusion and anxiety for children are their parents' reactions when reliving the event.

As many of us have news sources available to us twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, please consider limiting your television time over the events of September 11 to after-bedtime hours.  Just as children learn about health, human development, and receive driving instruction when they are age-appropriate topics and lessons, students can learn about our nation's distant and recent history when they are developmentally and emotionally ready to do so in later grades.

*****

Fifteen years ago, I was very fortunate that my Super Star families heeded my request to turn off their televisions and radios prior to school starting for the day.  NONE of my students had any idea what had happened, and it was our school's priority to protect them from the news as we prepared to handle the aftermath and form our responses to the questions we were going to be inevitably asked.  My Super Star families and I shared proposed responses to the kindergartners' anticipated questions with one another, and were able to maintain our students' perception that home and school were safe places.  They were an exceptional set of parents.

A friend once told me that he greatly respected all that teachers do, but that he didn't envy a very specific requirement of our job: we always have to have the right answer, the correct response, and be perfectly supportive of our students in every planned and spontaneous situation we encounter.  My school, my colleagues, and our families were up to the challenge on that life-changing day.