Freedom

I've several post ideas in my head so depending on how motivated I am this weekend this may be the one of several. Maybe not though. I actually have a list that needs work too.

I've said it already but learning about coins and money always bring out interesting classroom conversations. It's usually funny too. This week, after I explained that George Washington was the 1st President of the United States of America which was in fact a very long time ago. One student's response was, "before Jesus??" "No, a little bit after Jesus."

Then, I explained that on the back of a quarter is sometimes an eagle.

Side note, the US government changing all the quarters and making them all different on one side to represent the states is very confusing for five year olds and their teachers who have to teach them about identifying money. They should have been issued with a lesson plan on how to explain it and help kids identify them. Of course, I tell them it's the biggest coin but it's not really because of half dollars and no one see those anymore. Kindergarteners don't understand time or space. States-nada. Countries-nada. Years-nada. Somethings are so easy to explain and some just aren't.

Back to the story, I said that we had an eagle because it was the country's bird, and it represented freedom. The next obvious question was "what is freedom?" My dilemma? How do you explain the dichotomy of slavery vs. freedom to a five year old without making them think they're slaves? If you are a slave, you have to do everything someone else tells you to do. You can't say no, quit, and you don't get paid. I was just waiting for someone to connect the dots and tell me that he didn't have any freedom. It probably wasn't even close to happening but I stumbled through my explanation anyway. In my head, I tried to think of all the ways slavery is not like being a kid who has to listen and obey adults and their rules all day. Go ahead and try it. It's harder than you think. I tried to keep it to house work, cooking, and cleaning tasks. I probably failed and they have no idea what freedom means. Or maybe they do but they also get that they don't have any. At least, it doesn't feel like it anyway. We talked about Martin Luther King Jr. this week too so it's encouraging that we'd covered that first. I think I did do a good job of explaining that. Kids get fairness. Hopefully, that's the part that sticks. I'm counting on it anyway. They seemed pretty confused so I just collected the quarters and told them that most quarters don't have eagles on them anyway. Thank you U.S. Government.