Conversation 2: There is no God but God...
K: (Attempting to explain the definition of wampum to second graders) So, now everybody uses debit or credit cards to pay for stuff, but when I was a kid, we did not use that as much.
Student 1: So what did you use when you were a kid?!
K: More people used five or ten or twenty dollar bills to pay for things, or they wrote a check. And a long, long time before that, when the Native Americans we are reading about lived all over the continent, they used something different, and that is sort of what wampum is.
Student 2: So a long, long time ago, who was the first person born?
K: Well, we are not talking about when the first person was born, we are talking about later than that. A long time before I was born, but after Christopher Columbus came here, when Europeans first started coming here.
Student 2: It's God, isn't it? And Jesus is his son.
Student 3: No, Jesus was the first person born. Isn't that right?
K: Well, again, we talking about Native Americans, and all this stuff with the wampum is happening a long time after Jesus was born. And also on the other side of the world.
Student 4: So who was the first person? God or Jesus?
K: You know where a good place is to find answers about God? Church. If you are curious about Jesus and God, go to church, or the mosque, or synagogue, and...
Student 1: And ask your pastor! I'm afraid of my pastor.
Student 3: But can you just tell us who was born first?
K: Ok, let's get back to this idea about wampum.
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4 comments:
That's adorable. What good questions! If nothing else it reflects that they have at least some sort of grasp about what the past is. They've got the present, and they have 2000 years ago. Now if only they could grasp the middle...Good luck with that, teacher, good luck!
L.
I would be so afraid of that angry phone call or email from a parent...You really hate to shoot down questions like that, but religion in school is such a touchy subject. I'm sure you have to admit that the whole situation was very cute, though!
OK - now I remember why I sat on my deck for two hours late last summer just to "check my e-mail" it's because of a simple click through just to check your blog. C - you paint wonderfully with words. I'm trying to envision the classroom of kids...is there a backpack perched in corner and a sterno on teachers desk? Do they have Pabst in Uganda? Peace to you and M! JEB
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