Thanksgiving

Non-fiction and Thanksgiving

Speaking of non-fiction, how about that Thanksgiving story? The general trend in education is to teach children a fictional story as non-fiction. I personally have a hard time with the idea of telling children about this happy gathering between Pilgrims and Indians where they shared food and talked about how thankful they are for everything when in reality, the Pilgrims killed the Native Americans. How then do we handle Thanksgiving in the classroom? I'm quite sure I would upset some parents if I began telling kindergartners about the true story; you know, that one where the settlers gave the Native Americans disease infested blankets, killing of thousands of them. But, I'm also not sure I like the idea of teaching my students falsities.

How should we handle the holiday then? The students, their families, and our school will expect us to address Thanksgiving in some manner or another. Do we teach the youngest kids the traditional story and change their misconceptions as they get older?

For young students, I have decided that instead of teaching the students a false story or scarring children at a young age, I will focus on the giving thanks part of Thanksgiving in my classroom and leave the story up to the parents. I will, however, make literature available for both "sides of the story." Older students, however, I believe should be taught the story as accurately as we know how.