It's officially Thanksgiving Break (do normal people get Wednesday off? My roommate and I are both teachers and sometimes it's hard to remember how the outside world works). I'm thankful for you, blog!
Perhaps on this Thanksgiving holiday you are reflecting on the first Thanksgiving and, more broadly, our nation's heinous treatment of its indigenous people. We haven't gotten there yet in 5th grade social studies, but we're close. We're in a unit on the Age of Exploration, and we just covered the Aztecs and the Incas, and the Spanish conquest thereof. The kids wrote short responses on both, responding to the question "How and why did the Spanish conquer the powerful Inca [or Aztec] society?"
They were supposed to simply pull evidence from the texts they read. But some could not contain themselves (or were confused about the assignments... ha, oops) and revealed themselves to be amazing miniature social theorists and politicos, and possibly even fledgling socialists. Observe:
"The Spaniards blocked the Inca's capital. Just like in America we need supplies from China so if someone blocks our supplies we are bored, starved, and killed."
Get this kid to the State Department!
"Just think. You're at home sleeping and your boss comes and attacks you."
As evidence for how/ why Spain undertook conquest, this is both historically inaccurate and nonsensical. As a metaphor for the plight of the proletariat, it is concise, poignant, and spot-on. Read this one a few times in a row. It's getting deeper, isn't it?
But that is not even my favorite young Marxist. The student who wrote the most beautiful line in the English language, is, it turns out, the reincarnation of Karl himself. We're going to call her Karly.
Marx wrote "religion is the opiate of the masses."
Karly wrote "The Spanish conquered the Aztecs by converting them to Catholic people, probably to distract them."
This last piece I'll leave you with is not from social studies, but from grammar/ vocab class. Amidst a sea of variations on "the politician is from Hawaii" we have:
Happy Thanksgiving, America.
Perhaps on this Thanksgiving holiday you are reflecting on the first Thanksgiving and, more broadly, our nation's heinous treatment of its indigenous people. We haven't gotten there yet in 5th grade social studies, but we're close. We're in a unit on the Age of Exploration, and we just covered the Aztecs and the Incas, and the Spanish conquest thereof. The kids wrote short responses on both, responding to the question "How and why did the Spanish conquer the powerful Inca [or Aztec] society?"
They were supposed to simply pull evidence from the texts they read. But some could not contain themselves (or were confused about the assignments... ha, oops) and revealed themselves to be amazing miniature social theorists and politicos, and possibly even fledgling socialists. Observe:
"The Spaniards blocked the Inca's capital. Just like in America we need supplies from China so if someone blocks our supplies we are bored, starved, and killed."
Get this kid to the State Department!
"Just think. You're at home sleeping and your boss comes and attacks you."
As evidence for how/ why Spain undertook conquest, this is both historically inaccurate and nonsensical. As a metaphor for the plight of the proletariat, it is concise, poignant, and spot-on. Read this one a few times in a row. It's getting deeper, isn't it?
But that is not even my favorite young Marxist. The student who wrote the most beautiful line in the English language, is, it turns out, the reincarnation of Karl himself. We're going to call her Karly.
Marx wrote "religion is the opiate of the masses."
Karly wrote "The Spanish conquered the Aztecs by converting them to Catholic people, probably to distract them."
This is entirely her own thinking. Besides the mention of Catholicism, it does not draw at all from our discussion or the text (again, woops, but... props for critical thinking skills?). To my chagrin as a teacher but delight as a blogger (and also sub-level of delight as a teacher), she continued with this theme in her next essay, on the Incas:
"The second [reason the Spanish conquered the Incas] was because they wanted to convert the Incas to Catholic people. Pizarro would have easily taken over their empire. They would be so into Catholicsy because they would believe so much in god that they wouldn't have done anything to hurt the Spaniards."
Seriously! Here's a fuller version of an actual Karl Marx quote for comparison: "Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for their real happiness. To call on them to give up their illusions about their condition is to call on them to give up a condition that requires illusions."
Happy Thanksgiving, America.
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