School Bells –Current affairs - Grade 1 – week 3
This is the third week that I am meeting with the first grade class to discuss current affairs. Week one we introduced ourselves and shared some concerns. Week two we talked about being told of certain so called facts and why it may be important to question what we learn. Part of our concern was how we learn to be prejudiced or biased and how we retrain ourselves to question what we learned or thought we learned. I am eager to hear how the first graders have been doing with questioning “facts” and how they are doing with the assignment for this week. This week’s discussion will be about Tommy’s concern that his mother, an airplane pilot, might die from a crash because an accident or a bomb. The assignment was to talk to our families about how we learn to deal with such issues as fear. Here come the students now.
Me: Good morning everyone
Class: Good morning Mr. Jim, Uncle Jim
Sam raises her hand.
Me: Yes Sam.
Sam: What about the cookies Uncle Jim? Did you bring them?
Me: No, but I did bring notes for parents and other caregivers to sign saying it is okay to have cookies with glutten, nuts and chocolate. If it is okay with everyone then I will make cookies and bring them. Sofia and Sam will you pass out the slips.
Sofia and Sam take the slips and pass them out.
Me: Has everyone been practicing questioning what is a fact and how it was decided?
Sue: My parents said that they don’t know about this class. Now I ask questions all the time! They think why and how are the only two words I know.
Steve: My parents suggested that we just focus on questioning one thing every night at dinner. We made up a list of facts we would discuss every night for the next two weeks.
Me: I love that idea. Perhaps the rest of you could share that idea with your family. Does everyone remember the topic for this week?
Class: Yes. Fear!
Me: Yes, it is fear or rather how we handle fear. Everyone will recall that Tommy brought up that he is fearful that his mother, a pilot, will die because of an accidental plane crash or a bomb. What are some other words for fear?
Sue: Anxious
Me: Very good.
Susie: Panic, dread.
Me: Great. Any others?
Steve: Terror.
Ahmes: Frightened.
Me. There are a lot of words for fear but what is it.
Sam: An emotion
Tommy: A feeling.
Sofia: A word.
Sue: A funny sinking feeling as if something terrible is going to happen.
Steve: Not being able to sit still or go to sleep.
Me: What does that feeling make us feel like we should do? What is the fear saying?
Tera: Run!
Tommy: Hide!
Sam: Something terrible is going to happen and you cannot stop it.
Me: So fear often tells us that something terrible might happen, that there is nothing we can do, and we should run away or somehow get away from it. Let’s write those on the board.
What should we say to it?
Tommy: There are plane crashes sometimes. We cannot say it is lying.
Me: That is true. Some people do die in plane crashes. Not very many in comparison to all the planes flying, but if it is your friend or relative then it does not matter if it is only one out of a million. It is that one which means something to you?
Sofia: We could say it is not likely to happen.
Tommy: But it might.
Me: Yes, it might. What is the real issue here?
Sue: That his mother needs to quit flying?
Me: That would be one solution, but she is not likely to do that and we are still going to get fearful of other possible events. Should we stop doing everything which might make us or someone we care about fearful?
Sam: That would not be good Uncle Jim.
Sofia: Does that mean we would not have to take a test if we were fearful of failing?
Me: How would be know if we were learning something. There is always a test of sorts isn’t there. At some point when we were little we had to try to walk. We may have fallen down but we kept getting back up and finally we were able to walk.
Steve: Yeah but we might have had a lot of hurt knees!
Me: That is true. Should we not have learned to walk?
Sam: Uncle Jim!
Ahmes: Are you saying Mr. Jim that if we all have to take risks?
Me: Tommy what do you think?
Tommy: Well, it I did not learn to walk even though I fell I could not be here could I? I guess mom has to do what she does even though there is some risk.
Me: What would it be like if she just sat at home and never took any risks.
Tommy: She loves to fly. She would be very unhappy which would make me and my dad unhappy.
Me: I wonder if we are saying that it is not fear but what we say to the fear that matters. Sometimes the fear needs to be in charge. It would not be good to jump off of something really high unless we were escaping a fire or something like that. On the other hand, if fear was always in charge we would never do learn to walk, fly a plane or do much of anything.
Sam: Uncle Jim are you saying that it is how we talk to the fear or what we say to it which is important?
Me: Yes, I think my relationship with any emotion is very important. We do not always think of having a relationship with an emotion but we do. When a feeling such as fear arrives and tells us that something is dangerous or risky we have to have a conversation based on information we gather.
Steve: So when the fear tells me I probably will stink at playing the piano I should tell it to back off Mr.Jim.
Me: Good example. Yes, you do not know if you will do well at playing the piano until you try
Oh dear. The time is almost up. As we did last week talk to your family about this issue. Here is a paper describing what we did today. Please share it with your family. Good job. See you next week. Next week we are going to talk about Sofia’s concern that the United States will build a wall between here and Mexico preventing her from ever seeing her grandparents. Can we prevent that from happening and learn to work with Mexico and other countries? How can first graders make a difference?
Have a good week.
Written August 23, 2016
This is the third week that I am meeting with the first grade class to discuss current affairs. Week one we introduced ourselves and shared some concerns. Week two we talked about being told of certain so called facts and why it may be important to question what we learn. Part of our concern was how we learn to be prejudiced or biased and how we retrain ourselves to question what we learned or thought we learned. I am eager to hear how the first graders have been doing with questioning “facts” and how they are doing with the assignment for this week. This week’s discussion will be about Tommy’s concern that his mother, an airplane pilot, might die from a crash because an accident or a bomb. The assignment was to talk to our families about how we learn to deal with such issues as fear. Here come the students now.
Me: Good morning everyone
Class: Good morning Mr. Jim, Uncle Jim
Sam raises her hand.
Me: Yes Sam.
Sam: What about the cookies Uncle Jim? Did you bring them?
Me: No, but I did bring notes for parents and other caregivers to sign saying it is okay to have cookies with glutten, nuts and chocolate. If it is okay with everyone then I will make cookies and bring them. Sofia and Sam will you pass out the slips.
Sofia and Sam take the slips and pass them out.
Me: Has everyone been practicing questioning what is a fact and how it was decided?
Sue: My parents said that they don’t know about this class. Now I ask questions all the time! They think why and how are the only two words I know.
Steve: My parents suggested that we just focus on questioning one thing every night at dinner. We made up a list of facts we would discuss every night for the next two weeks.
Me: I love that idea. Perhaps the rest of you could share that idea with your family. Does everyone remember the topic for this week?
Class: Yes. Fear!
Me: Yes, it is fear or rather how we handle fear. Everyone will recall that Tommy brought up that he is fearful that his mother, a pilot, will die because of an accidental plane crash or a bomb. What are some other words for fear?
Sue: Anxious
Me: Very good.
Susie: Panic, dread.
Me: Great. Any others?
Steve: Terror.
Ahmes: Frightened.
Me. There are a lot of words for fear but what is it.
Sam: An emotion
Tommy: A feeling.
Sofia: A word.
Sue: A funny sinking feeling as if something terrible is going to happen.
Steve: Not being able to sit still or go to sleep.
Me: What does that feeling make us feel like we should do? What is the fear saying?
Tera: Run!
Tommy: Hide!
Sam: Something terrible is going to happen and you cannot stop it.
Me: So fear often tells us that something terrible might happen, that there is nothing we can do, and we should run away or somehow get away from it. Let’s write those on the board.
What should we say to it?
Tommy: There are plane crashes sometimes. We cannot say it is lying.
Me: That is true. Some people do die in plane crashes. Not very many in comparison to all the planes flying, but if it is your friend or relative then it does not matter if it is only one out of a million. It is that one which means something to you?
Sofia: We could say it is not likely to happen.
Tommy: But it might.
Me: Yes, it might. What is the real issue here?
Sue: That his mother needs to quit flying?
Me: That would be one solution, but she is not likely to do that and we are still going to get fearful of other possible events. Should we stop doing everything which might make us or someone we care about fearful?
Sam: That would not be good Uncle Jim.
Sofia: Does that mean we would not have to take a test if we were fearful of failing?
Me: How would be know if we were learning something. There is always a test of sorts isn’t there. At some point when we were little we had to try to walk. We may have fallen down but we kept getting back up and finally we were able to walk.
Steve: Yeah but we might have had a lot of hurt knees!
Me: That is true. Should we not have learned to walk?
Sam: Uncle Jim!
Ahmes: Are you saying Mr. Jim that if we all have to take risks?
Me: Tommy what do you think?
Tommy: Well, it I did not learn to walk even though I fell I could not be here could I? I guess mom has to do what she does even though there is some risk.
Me: What would it be like if she just sat at home and never took any risks.
Tommy: She loves to fly. She would be very unhappy which would make me and my dad unhappy.
Me: I wonder if we are saying that it is not fear but what we say to the fear that matters. Sometimes the fear needs to be in charge. It would not be good to jump off of something really high unless we were escaping a fire or something like that. On the other hand, if fear was always in charge we would never do learn to walk, fly a plane or do much of anything.
Sam: Uncle Jim are you saying that it is how we talk to the fear or what we say to it which is important?
Me: Yes, I think my relationship with any emotion is very important. We do not always think of having a relationship with an emotion but we do. When a feeling such as fear arrives and tells us that something is dangerous or risky we have to have a conversation based on information we gather.
Steve: So when the fear tells me I probably will stink at playing the piano I should tell it to back off Mr.Jim.
Me: Good example. Yes, you do not know if you will do well at playing the piano until you try
Oh dear. The time is almost up. As we did last week talk to your family about this issue. Here is a paper describing what we did today. Please share it with your family. Good job. See you next week. Next week we are going to talk about Sofia’s concern that the United States will build a wall between here and Mexico preventing her from ever seeing her grandparents. Can we prevent that from happening and learn to work with Mexico and other countries? How can first graders make a difference?
Have a good week.
Written August 23, 2016
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