Things That Shouldn't Stump the Teacher

Remind me when I run for president, to include a kid friendly fact sheet on my campaign website. Oh and also remind me when I become the chief editor of the New York Times to dedicate a section of the website to educators. I love including current events in the classroom, but it is so hard to find kid-friendly, objective information. We are covering the Pennsylvania primary and the Olympic Torch controversy in our classroom and I spend more time searching for kid friendly articles or online videos than I do planning and teaching combined. If you have any ideas, please send them my way.

Despite the lack of resources, the students seem to really dig talking about current events. Eleven year olds are so innocent and it reflects in their simplistically brilliant questions. One fifth grader stumped me with, “What is the difference between Republicans and Democrats?” In an effort to remain as objective as possible, I dove into the difference between a republic and a democracy. About 45 seconds into it, I was tripping over my words and realizing that I wasn’t answering her question at all. I was vaclempt. It wasn’t that I didn’t know the difference, I was a political science major for Christ’s sake! But I didn’t know how to explain it without revealing my own personal biases and without generalizing beliefs on key issues. I finally had an epiphany and I asked the class. They totally bailed me out! One student brought up state vs federal governing styles and another discussed differing views on the military.

So the moral of the story is children pick up on things here and there and are able to synthesize and articulate, sometimes faster and more eloquently than educated adults.