How Did We Get Here?

Earlier this month an NPR's podcast Money Planet was in an Ohio third grade classroom doing a story about how economics is taught in elementary school through the reading of popular children's picture books like Pancakes, Pancakes! by Eric Carle and Put Me in the Zoo by Robert Lopshire.

The basic idea would be familiar to any preschool educator. The teacher sits in front of the kids reading to the children, pausing frequently to prompt conversation, answer questions, and entertain the thoughts and ideas that emerge from the story.

The following are excerpts from the transcript of the show. BERAS is the NPR host. ROBEK is the teacher reading from the Dr. Suess book The Sneetches:

BERAS: The star-bellied Sneetches live the good life, and the nonstarred Sneetches do not. The star-bellied Sneetches don't let the plain-bellied Sneetches come to their frankfurter roasts, picnics or parties or marshmallow toasts.

ROBEK: (Reading) They kept them away, never let them come near. And that's how they treated them year after year.

KATIE: Oh, that's kind of mean.

UNIDENTIFIED STUDENT #2: They got to fight back (ph).

ROBEK: Katie, what did you say? You said it felt mean.

KATIE: That's kind of mean because, like, just 'cause their bellies are plain and they don't have stars in it doesn't mean that they're not special.

ROBEK: Right. Doesn't mean they're not special.

UNIDENTIFIED STUDENT #2: I kind of think . . .

ROBEK: Noah.

NOAH: It's almost like what happened back then, how people were treated . . .

UNIDENTIFIED STUDENTS: Yeah.

NOAH: . . . Like, disrespected . . .

UNIDENTIFIED STUDENT #2: I think that book was made in that time.

NOAH: Like, white people disrespected Black people, but then, they might stand up in the book.

ROBEK: Oh, so we're -- let's keep reading to find out if they do stand up maybe a little bit. So when you say stand up -- get included?

NOAH: Yeah

ROBEK: Yeah, that's what we're hoping for, right?

This is familiar ground for many of us. This is how story time generally goes when I read to children. It's not just a silent read-through, but rather a dynamic give-and-take as the children to make connections to what they already know about the world. 

BERAS: There's a lot in this book. That's the beauty of kids' books. They're so simple and complex at the same time. And this is going so well. They're making connections, and I haven't even asked a question. Mandy Robek keeps reading "The Sneetches." And non-Sneetch Sylvester McMonkey McBean, he rolls into town. And he sees how much worse it is to be a Sneetch without a star than to be a Sneetch with a star.

ROBEK: (Reading) Then, quickly, Sylvester McMonkey McBean put together a very peculiar machine. And he said, you want stars like a star-belly Sneetch? My friends, you can have them for $3 each.

BERAS: He sees an opportunity to profit.

ROBEK: (Reading) Then, of course, old Sylvester McMonkey McBean invited them into his star-off machine. Then, of course, from then on, as you probably guessed, things really got into a horrible mess.

BERAS: At this point, Amanda Beeman, the communications person with the school district, stands up. She looks really upset. She waves her hands to get Mrs. Robek's attention to stop reading.

Amanda Beeman: Sorry.

UNIDENTIFIED STUDENT #1: They're scaring them because (ph) . . .

BEEMAN: Can I pause this?

ROBEK: Yeah.

BEEMAN: I don't know if I feel comfortable with this book being one of the ones featured. I just feel like this isn't teaching anything about economics, and this is a little bit more about differences with race and everything like that. So do you mind, Mrs. Robek, if we pause this book.

BERAS: I mean, we have a list here of all the things this is about -- preferences, open markets, economic loss.

BEEMAN: Yeah, I just don't think it might be appropriate for the third-grade class and for them to have a discussion around it. Are you OK with that?

ROBEK: I'm OK with that if that's your . . .

BEEMAN: OK. I just -- as someone -- I just don't think that this is going to be the discussion that we wanted to have around economics. So I'm sorry. We're going to cut this one off.

BERAS: For the first time that day, the kids are really quiet. They sit still on the rug in their chairs, just staring up at the grown-ups in the room.

BEEMAN: So is there anything else that we can pivot too?

ROBEK: I have lots of books.

BERAS: Then, the kids start asking how the story ends. Amanda, the press person, addresses them in kid talk.

BEEMAN: Sometimes, when you don't feel comfortable, you got something in your belly you got to just speak up about it, right?

This whole interruption is outrageous, but this particular line really burns me. This communications person is trying to co-opt the children's language about "fighting back" as if she is some sort of civil rights champion. Not only that, but clearly she is lying. She was motivated by nothing more noble than the potential for parent complaints.

UNIDENTIFIED STUDENT #4: I don't even know what happens in the story.

UNIDENTIFIED STUDENT #5: Yeah, me neither.

UNIDENTIFIED STUDENT #4: Like, I wasn't to read it (ph) -- haven't ever read that.

BEEMAN: You know what? I think that's one that maybe we can ask, you know, with our parents at home.

The kids were having a dialog about big ideas. They were curious. They were thinking. They were making important connections. If the goal was for the children to learn about economics, they were, right there, recognizing the intersection between economics, politics, and race. In reality, the three things cannot be separated in our society and this is what the children were beginning to recognize. These are the moments that teachers live for, when the children start putting things together. This is what education in a self-governing society is all about. These are the dialogs of democracy.

But the adult was, in her own words, "uncomfortable." The children clearly were not.

How did we get here?

******

 

"Teacher Tom, our caped hero of all things righteous in the early childhood world, inspires us to be heroic in our own work with young children, and reminds us that it is the children who are the heroes of the story as they embark on adventures of discovery, wonder, democracy, and play." ~Rusty Keeler

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