giving thanks

It was almost Thanksgiving, my lesson plan as a student teacher at Point Park Lab School was to teach the integrated class of first through third graders a bit of history leading up to turkey day.  The assignment was to be more of a ‘touchy’ ‘feely’ experience as this school focused on the senses of learning and after all it was the decade of the sixties (you know the Age of Aquarius). The purpose of this lesson plan was to have the children identify with those Americans of the past with their various backgrounds and how that is relevant to the present and our individual backgrounds. As most I was once was a student teacher knows this was a challenge and lots of prep time, creativity and bulletin boards were readied. (Back in the day we also used a lot of mimeograph paper). 

As I was thumbtacking my 85th addition to the Thanksgiving bulletin board, Maureen, a very vocal young girl started yelling at her fellow classmate Ezra. Expression of self was promoted at the Lab School, but this discourse was unusually loud, and a bit frenetic. I think I had one more set of wings to add to the turkey for the board, but being the ever present student teacher placed my arts and crafts on the table and rushed over to both Maureen and Ezra. As I approached the two, Maureen began screaming “…it is not your holiday, it is for Christians, my mother told me we give thanks to God for Thanksgiving and your God is different. Before I could even muster up my wise and sage voice to intervene Maureen looked at me and continued, “Mr. Bunch (it was the late sixties I was a cool teacher), tell Ezra that it was the Pilgrims who invented Thanksgiving and remind him they were Christian.”

And there I was, suddenly my lesson plan was irrelevant, suddenly this holiday that I knew as American as apple pie was being perceived as a religious event and suddenly what I considered the innocence of youth was turning into a misstatement by the not so young. Happily my classroom teacher walked in called the kids into a group and dealt head on with the subject of who can celebrate holidays. If we want God to bless us during Thanksgiving she said we do so because this is America. If we wish to thank only our family and friends for the bounty we received we can do so, because this is America. If we don’t want to thank anyone and not even celebrate Thanksgiving we also can do because this is America. My teacher added as she held Maureen and Ezra’s hand because this is America no one has the right to say how they celebrate the holiday is the right way. This is America children, she added and the beauty of America is we all are equal and no ones God or lack of God makes us any better or worse.

When the kids were dismissed my teacher and I sat down to decompress. Quite the day she said in a very nonplused voice. I suppose we have a to look closely at how we educate our students regarding Thanksgiving. Perhaps the folklore plays a much more important role rather than the facts and instead of wanting to know reasons we prefer to be lulled into fudging the truth. Maybe if we can stop this generation of students from assuming the truth, the truth might be freed. We can only hope a day like today made a difference. That was almost 50 years ago. As I begin to celebrate Thanksgiving 2013, I still wonder how this holiday is perceived and if in fact is about permitting all Americans no matter their differences the right to give thanks.