Each family at Cow Hollow School gives a presentation to their class about their family, which is called a “Culture Share.” The Culture Share is meant to give a glimpse into each family – such as their values or their identities – as a means for other children in the class to understand or even identify with other families in the class. In this journal, one family’s Culture Share about their South African heritage brought up interesting questions in the context of Nelson Mandela’s stories, and shows how these 4-5 year olds are working hard to play with their notions of citizenship, justice, and rules.
Divinia's family had their Family Culture Share two weeks ago when they shared artifacts connecting to many aspects of their family culture. They brought in many items relating to Kristina and their family's connection to South Africa, as that is where Kristina is from. One of these items was the South African flag, which Kristina connected to parts of the country's history and also some of the story of Nelson Mandela. Many of the children shared that they knew some aspects of Mandela's story - some knew he had been in jail, some knew that he recently died. Many of the children were interested in the fact that he went to jail (a powerful idea that many have explored in stories and dramatic play) and Kristina pointed out an important part of his story - it wasn't because he did something wrong that he was put in jail, it was because he didn't agree with the laws in place at the time where he lived.
This struck a chord with many of the children - they wholeheartedly agreed that it wasn't OK for someone to be put in jail because others disagreed with them. This is a concept the children have a lot tools and thoughts around, practicing safe ways to disagree with others and making room for the ideas of everyone in their classroom community. They were clearly mulling the idea over that someone could be punished simply because their beliefs were different, and because they openly voiced their disagreement.
We decided to explore Nelson Mandela's story further with the group, for a couple of reasons:
As Ben Mardell writes, "Moral development is a complex process. Somehow, children take what they see and hear and develop moral frameworks. With young children you can see this process at work. Preschoolers tend to be junior philosophers. They wonder about God. They ponder the meaning of death. They are particularly concerned with goodness, the question of evil, and issues of fairness. Through discussions, observations, and just living life, they are actively constructing their sense of morality.”
The authors of the book, Louise Derman-Sparks and Julie Olsen Edwards explain, "Children cannot construct a strong self-concept or develop respect for others if they do not know how to identify and resist hurtful, stereotypical, and inaccurate messages or actions directed toward them or others. Developing the ability to think critically strengthens children's sense of self, as well as their capacity to form caring relationships with others. Furthermore, being able to think critically about the world is a skill important for later school success.”
It is with these goals and intentions that we decided to go deeper into the issues of inequality and injustice through the lens of discussing the life of Nelson Mandela. We got a book called Nelson Mandela by Kadir Nelson to start off our discussion. Framing it in connection to some of what we talking about during Divinia's Family Culture Share, we read the book during opening circle time on Monday, December 16.
Below are some of the comments during the book reading:
Nicholas: I heard about him (Mandela), he's a real person, but he died.
Jai: That's not a good reason to put someone in jail. (when hearing that he was put in jail for speaking against apartheid laws)
Fin: It was just a misunderstanding.
Jai: That's his power! (when hearing about Mandela becoming a lawyer to help others.) (later) If you're all in a group, that's how you do better. (when we discussed the separation of people within the apartheid laws)
From the large group reading we took the book into small groups where the children continued reflecting on the story through drawings and conversations. The photo on the below is of a page Alexa was interested in - the one where Mandela is sent away for schooling, saying goodbye to his mother. In conversation with Blanche (in for our breaks) she said, "A mom and a kid. A mom with a kid. Telling him to be brave."
Below is a snippet of a conversation that came up during the small group with Henry, Fin, and Thalia: Many children were interested in the page where it shows the beaches being for "whites only." We discussed if it is OK to tell people they can only be with people who look like them or are from the same place?
Fin: That's not OK.
Thalia: Because the people, they, like, want to be together.
Fin: Because the people want to be together even though they're from different places. Like, I'm from New York and I only know one person from New York. Then I would only get to be with her.
Petra: Oh, that wouldn't feel good, to only be able to be with your friend from New York?
Fin: No.
Henry: This is me and that's my mom. See how that's a little line (pointing to the frowns on their faces)? We're sad because this is a heart (drawn in the space between them) and we love each other but we're far away. Because she's teaching at her school and I'm at my school. I'm holding a telescope because I'm going to look at my mom.
Petra: That reminds me of the part of Nelson Mandela's story where he has to be far away from his mom when he went away to school.
Henry: Maybe he has a telescope that could do this.
Henry was also curious about the page that shows Mandela's wife, Winnie, standing with him in support.
Henry: Why didn't she go in jail?
Thalia: Because they weren't married yet.
Fin: There was a misunderstanding - that's why he went to jail. And he's a boy. Mostly boys go to jail.
Petra: Actually, both grownup men and grownup women can go to jail if they break the law. I see in this book it looks like the jail Nelson Mandela went to there were only men. (I wanted to give factual information, and also it makes me think that we need to have more conversations/experiences that push back against gender stereotypes that influence gender bias.)
Fin: Who decided he had to go to jail?
Petra: The government of South Africa at the time made those laws - the people in charge of the country.
Fin: Why were they in charge of South Africa?....(long pause)....So...the people should have done it.
Petra: South Africans should have done what they said? They should have separated into groups based on what they looked like?
Fin: Yeah...(looking like he wasn't sure about that answer)
Petra: Hmm...But they didn't agree with the laws - like you guys said, they didn't think it was OK to be kept apart.
Fin: But it's not OK to break the law...
Petra: Do you think it's OK to break the law if it's an unfair law?
Thalia: Maybe they could just do their idea (the government's) for one day and then do the people's idea for the rest of the time.
Petra: I hear you're trying to make a compromise...
This brought up a very interesting question and problem - clearly Fin and Thalia were struggling with the idea of doings something "against the rules", especially as decided by the larger governing entity that makes laws. They had already expressed disagreement with the basic principles of apartheid, but now seemed confused about how to reconcile that unfairness when it was imposed by the people in charge. Tim (co-teacher) and I discussed bringing this question back to whole group: is it OK to go against what you are being told if it is unfair or unequal? And a smaller part of that, who actually gets to make rules or laws and what do you do if you don't agree?
Fin: I know who (makes rules for our country) - the government.
Nicholas: But, who gave the rules to the government?
Henry: Is this real life?
Nicholas: Yeah, because Nelson Mandela was in real life.
Who makes rules/guidelines for us?
Finley: The grownups.
Divinia: Or Ms. Darcy. (School director)
Alexa: You have to stay with a teacher.
Petra: Oh, yeah - that's a guideline we have at school. Why are the grownups in charge?
Finley: Because kids are not the boss of adults. Like Cooper, he's in charge. Bigger brothers are the boss of little sisters.
Rutledge: My sister is older than me and the boss of me.
Thalia: I'm only the boss of one of my sisters.
Petra: Thalia, in your family are there things that you and your sisters get to be in charge of?
Laura (teaching parent that day): Kids are in charge of making bedroom rules.
Thalia: Sometimes Ariadne wants it light and sometimes I want it dark.
Addie: I get to choose what's in bed with me.
(More children connect to things they get to decide about having in bed or at bedtime routines)
Darcy: I get to be in charge of my little sister- not sucking her thumb.
Laura: Also in our house, the girls get to pick one meal every week, on Wednesdays. They take turns deciding what we eat for the meal and figuring out what we need to buy. We did that so it would be fair and also to have practice planning healthy meals.
Divinia: I get to choose what I have in my lunch for Lunch Bunch. Or when we go to a restaurant.
Things children are in charge/have choices about at school and in the Big Garden:
Nicholas: Children get to write in notebooks.
Fin: Oh! We get to make choices on the activity chart and the Job Chart.
From here we broke into another small group. Addie, Divinia, and Darcy journaled and discussed elements of the story and related questions about choice and power.
Divinia: Even we get to make choices about the jobs!
Addie: And what you want to do today on the white chart (the white magnet board we use for the children to make their choice for what to work on that day.)
Divinia: Even if they break they law they might get put in jail.
Petra: So do you think it was OK for Nelson Mandela to break the law that was unfair, even if he might get put in jail?
Divinia: I don't know...
I was thinking about how to explore and bridge conversation about this subject of unfair separation and decision making in a way that might feel more concrete –
Petra (Teacher): So, what if someone came into our classroom and said that only people wearing red pants could play together, and only people wearing purple pants could play together (the colors of some of our pants)? What would you think?
Addie: Then we couldn't play together!
Petra: Huh! How would that feel? What would you say?
Divinia: I would just say, "Please go away, I don't need this conversation.”
Darcy: Yeah, I would not be OK. I would say, "Go away, this is not nice!" (using an angry voice for the second part)
Petra: You both are being really clear about telling that person you didn't agree with their rule...
So this is where we left off at the end of the Fall semester, and there is so much more to delve into as we begin the Spring semester! These are some big questions the children are exploring about power, fairness, choice, and equality - all important and very pertinent to their development as four and five year-olds citizens of our classroom and the world! We are so excited to continue to explore these topics with the group when we return.
Warmly,
Petra and
Tim
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I notice – I wonder