Newsletter: October 5, 2012

Dear Families,

This sure seemed like a quick week. That may have been due, in part, to the fact we seemed to have more things to accomplish each day than the clock would allow. We started the week off with a little quiz over the four river systems and six landform regions of South Carolina.While we enjoyed exploring different maps, paying special attention to their many features, our South Carolina state standards called for the memorization of these river systems and regions. Thank you to everyone for helping your children prepare last weekend. The completed quizzes will come home on Monday.

Here we see that some strategies are not well designed for larger collections of numbers. In this case we found that adding the ones, carrying, and then adding the tens was the most reliable method.

Speaking of social studies, we preceded our study of Native Americans by browsing our textbook to take stock of the pictures in each chapter. Led by the question "Whose history can we expect to learn this year?", we found that there were 128 photos or illustrations of men and 53 photos or illustrations of women. Of these, 102 were white, 47 were African-American, and 15 were Native American.

"Wow," I said. "Why do you think there are fourteen Native Americans in the first chapter but only one in the entire rest of the book. What happened to them?

A few hands shot up. I asked the kids to turn and discuss this with a friend.

"Maybe they went back to India?" someone guessed.

Ha! Dispelling the logical notion that American Indians are from India has been a part of our discussion most days. Following Clolumbus' route on a globe next Monday may well help to clear this up.

On Wednesday we found a map that stated in 1300 there were around 15 - 18 different tribes living in what is now South Carolina . Our state standards call for us to memorize a few facts about three of them. Again, I asked "How do you think they decided which tribes were most important to know about? What about the others?" Most responses centered on the idea that these tribes were the largest or most powerful. I, of course, did not know the answer but that seems like an awfully logical guess. Much of our history is told from the perspective of the larger dominant groups that often are most powerful. I shared with the kids that the history of both our country and state is enormous and to simplify into something we can learn in just one year someone had to select what was most important to know and what was not. The selection of these facts and events form a story that we come to believe as the history of America. However, many stories get left out.

I know we will spend this year learning all about the King's Proprietors, colonists, the American Revolution, the Civil War and the names of bunches of generals and so forth. These are the specific items that will be tested in May. Beyond this I would love for us to open ourselves up to the stories that otherwise would become lost. Stories of...

tribal leaders
civil rights activist
suffragists
Japanese-Americans who spoke out against "war relocation camps"
anit-war activists
African-American soldiers in the Civil War
those who have worked and/or fought on behalf of others

Of course, these name just a few of the categories you may think of in terms of groups of people who are not often talked about in history. To help with this I am asking each of the kids to do a BRIEF study of someone they think the rest of the class should know about. Because these names will not be at the tips of their tongues they will most likely need your help. In case you get stuck, I am providing a list of potential names at the end of this newsletter. Please do not feel as though your child is limited just to the names on this list. Your choices are endless. Help your child pick someone that would be interesting to share out. I asked the kids to provide only a paragraph or two about their person - not an entire biography. Here is the example I provided in class:

Crazy Horse - He was part of the Lakota tribe. He was very quiet but a strong leader. He had a vision that told him "keep nothing for yourself." In keeping with this vision, he owned nothing. He was fierce in war but kind with his people. He was killed after riding into Fort Robinson to talk of peace.

I am asking the kids to bring this assignment in on Monday, October 15th. We will talk about it more when we return on Monday.

The kids have been bringing in really great information about each of our presidential candidates. Many of these items have allowed us to think about issues such as big government. Someone shared today that President Obama and his wife want to pick what we eat. After discussing whether they would suggest or pick foods for us (reflecting back on what we heard about the soda-size law in NY) I asked the kids what they would do if they were president to help reverse the rising obesity problem in our country. After discussing this with their friends they responded:

"Only have two bakeries in each city."
"Make healthy food cheaper."
"Make people pay more for hospital bills."
"Let people choose for themselves. Leave them alone."

Each response was well received and made for a nice discussion. This tied back to the notion of big government. When should a government mandate things in the name of health and safety? Should they at all? Please, please share your thoughts with your child at home. Help them think about issues of power and what, in your opinion, constitutes right and wrong.

For next week...

Reading - biographies
Writing - finishing poetry and writing our next song
Math - fractions
Social Studies - Columbus, Native Americans, current events, the election

And finally, here is the promised list of names. You will notice it is VERY incomplete!

Maria Tallchief

Squanto

Sacajawea

Pontiac

Geronimo

Tecumseh

Sitting Bull

Black Hawk

Sequoiah

Hiawatha

 Ella Baker

W.E.B. Dubois

Marcus Garvey

Medgar Evers

Thurgood Marshall

Jesse Jackson

Stokely Carmichael

Frederick Douglass

54^th Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteers

 Dr. Feng Shan Ho

Dalip Singh Saund

Susan B Anthony
Jane Addams

Have a great weekend,
Chris