Little People

I had an epiphany sitting in my classroom on Friday. I've always viewed kids as sweet and innocent, and please don't think I'm noy saying that now, but my view definitely changed after this situation. I was sitting on the rug while all of my kids are on the edges while I was cutting open our pumpkin. Because of the different beliefs that each of my students have, we do not celebrate Halloween, so we talked about what our pumpkin looked like, what we thought would be inside, and so on. While I am cutting it open, my kids are discussing (and when I say discussing, I mean it was an all-out discussion) Halloween and what it means. One student is saying that it is evil, while another talks about how God hates Halloween, others are saying it is just for fun, others are saying everybody participates, others are talking about the candy and costumes, and of course, there are a few others who are just sitting watching me and/or staring into space. Please keep in mind that I teach five-year-olds!! I was completely amazed when I stopped to listen while giving my arms are rest from cutting open this ridiculous pumpkin. I decided to take it all in and kept listening instead of stopping the discussion. As I sat there I realized that these children are not all innocent and naive like I once thought - they have been exposed to so much in this world. At times, it is sad to see that some parents have not done their job and kids have to grow up too fast, but I do not think this was the case. This discussion was kids expressing their views (or rather the views their parents had imposed on them) and actually discussing them in their own five-year-old way. Eventually, I did stop cutting and we discussed that not everyone celebrates Halloween and why it is a "holiday" in our country. We talked about the fact that all children do not dress up and go trick-or-treating, but some stay at home while others go to other events like fall festivals. We did end up carving a face in our pumpkin to experience a tradition of Halloween (just like we will have a Thanksgiving feast, make a Hannukah menorah, and so on). All of my kids had a good time and I don't think I alienated any of them. In fact, I think Halloween is fun. I still remember dressing up as RainbowBrite as a child and going trick-or-treating with my childhood best friend, Jennifer, and our families. You don't have to focus on the evil of Halloween - all it is to me is a night in which people dress up for fun and walk around getting candy from friends/neighbors. So yes, my children will take part in Halloween one day, and I will teach them what people think about Halloween and will tell them my take on it as well. I want them to be educated about it and be able to discuss it like my students did on Friday. After we finally counted the 259 seeds (yes, we definitely counted all of them!) and I had cleaned everything up, I sat and thought about how grown up five-year-old children are - they are not naive at all - they are just little grown ups, little people! As a matter of fact, they know much more than we think or imagine that they know! I am looking forward to going back into my classroom tomorrow and learning from my kids because my job is so much more than kids sitting on a rug listening to me read a book or my kids sitting at a table and working on their handwriting.