Monday, February 4, 2013

I have a dream

Owen and I stopped in at the library after school Thursday to pick up a couple books I had on reserve. He wanted to get more for him, but I told him he could only get two since he and Sophie already had 17 books checked out. He wanted the two to be Disney easy readers (Winnie the Pooh, Cars, Toy Story, etc), but I told him they had to non-franchise books, to which he begrudgingly agreed.

After picking up my books, we passed a display that had Martin's Big Words on it.


Having  read good reviews of it, I added it to our stack. Owen protested, saying he didn't want it to be one of his two books, so I told him it was for me. He picked out two random books, and I saw one for Sophie and then we were on our way home.

After dinner, I asked to read it, but he protested, saying he didn't like the book because he had never read it. But I continued, and by the second page, he was listening. By the fourth, he was curled up next to me. When it got to Rosa Parks, he didn't understand why she was arrested. Nor could he understand later, when "they were jailed and beaten and murdered." I looked at his face, and he looked upset and distraught, but then Martin said "Love is the key to the problems of the world."

He had that same look on the penultimate page in which Martin was shot and killed. After finishing, I asked him if he wanted to hear Martin speak, and he did. We sat down at the table and watched Martin speak. He kept on pausing it in the beginning. I had to convince him to keep listening and watching. Sophie, meanwhile, kept seeing the clapping and applause and clapped herself.



After it was over, we had a talk about differences between people. I focused on getting him to understand the line about not judging people by the color of their skins, but by the content of their character. He wanted to go back to the book to where Rosa Parks was arrested because that was the part he "liked" best. I couldn't get him to explain why, but based on his questions, it seemed to be the event that made the least sense--a woman being arrested because she was sitting down. On Friday morning, we read it again. Again he wanted to read/look at the bus pages and became downcast when Martin was shot.  My uncles were in town for the gathering we had for my dad, and my Uncle John, a lifelong educator, agreed with my theory, stating that it was because of the clear unfairness of the situation--something children can understand easily.

We probably could have led the conversation (or let him lead it) a little better. It was spur of the moment. We haven't gotten too deep with social issues or current events with Owen, but I do try to make an effort to expose him to some other perspectives/cultures (though it sh/could be more). We've had other books that have caused some emotion (generally on our part), but this is first book where I've seen this type of disappointment and sadness from Owen while reading a book. I guess the next step after recognizing unfairness is to discuss what actions to take to correct the situation.  I guess I have discussion points for the next reading.