[As another
semester comes to a close, I’ll reflect on some of my fall courses and
conversations, focusing this time on moments and ways that they were relevant
to our own moment. I’d love to hear your Fall 2016 reflections as well!]
On two places
and ways I’m talking to and with the boys about America in 2016.
One of my favorite
moments from the 2016 campaign (not nearly as long or competitive of a list as
my least favorite moments, I grant you, but nonetheless) featured and
exemplified my older son’s voice, perspective, and sense of humor. One evening,
in the aftermath of the semi-notorious January incident wherein an Iowa
protester threw tomatoes at Donald Trump, I shared that story with the
boys, with whom I had been talking about the presidential campaign and
candidates (and most especially the Cheeto of Doom) for a while by that point. My
older son listened to the story and then paused for a moment, cocking his head
to the side thoughtfully. Finally, he said only two words: “Fair enough.” Besides
being my favorite piece of political commentary in 2016, how can that response
not give you hope that the American future is in good hands??
The boys weren’t
with me the week of the election, although I did go see them that Wednesday for
a much-needed post-election hug. (“It’ll be okay,” my older son said while we
hugged, and even in that most immediate and painful aftermath he made me
believe.) But in the weeks since, we’ve spent a good bit of time talking about
what happened, what’s happening, and especially about the goal of being an
upstander rather than a bystander if we witness hateful or discriminatory
words or actions (far too many of which have taken
place at schools in this fraught and frustrating post-election period). I
don’t necessarily believe that “all politics is local,” but I do think there’s
great wisdom in another longstanding phrase: “Think globally, act locally.” Even
for those of us with grand ambitions to be a public scholar and the like (if
you happen to know anyone with such grandiose goals…), the most consistent and
meaningful places we can make an impact are those around us: the classroom, the
university, book talks, this blog. And I think it’s crucial that I help the
boys understand that they have an ability—and a responsibility—to make their
own profound impacts on their own spaces and communities, now more than ever. I’m
excited to see how much they understand and like that idea.
One of their
main communities right now is the elementary school classroom, and I’m also
excited to be finding new ways to make my own connections to that vital space.
I’ve long taken advantage of opportunities to visit their classes: as a
Celebrity Reader, to help with different projects, to chaperone field trips
(including one to Plimoth
Plantation!). But this fall I’ve decided to take such visits one step
further, and to find ways to share some of my AmericanStudies interests and
ideas with their social studies units. Today I’ll be visiting my younger son’s
class, which is deep in a Native American unit, to talk about young Native
American activists both past (such as Zitkala-Ša)
and present (such as Santana
Jayde Young Man Afraid of His Horses). And in a couple weeks I’ll visit my
older son’s class, as they begin a Revolutionary War unit, to share the amazing
and influential story of Quock
Walker. I don’t know what exactly these American identities and stories
will mean to 4th and 5th graders, and that’s precisely the
point—just adding to their collective perspectives, whatever that might mean
for their understandings and ideas as they move into their own American lives
and futures. Just because they already give me hope for the future doesn’t mean
I don’t have a role to play in that arc as well!
Spring preview
this weekend,
Ben
PS. What do you
think? Reflections you’d share?
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