Chewing on an Idea
by Andrea Pierotti, Kindergarten Teacher-Researcher
In Kindergarten, we’ve been reading about changemakers, people who have found ways to make the world a better place by taking a stand against injustices in many forms. We’ve thought about ideas from workers’ rights to civil rights, from women’s rights to rights for those who are differently-abled.
How are the children connecting to these ideas?
What are they coming to understand by hearing these stories?
For a while, the children sat and listened. They asked questions. They were taking it all in.
More recently, they have started to make connections between stories. They have noticed, for example, that many of these figures read books and educated themselves about the world, they speak up for themselves and others in peaceful ways and they often gain inspiration from other humans making a difference.
We can tell the children are chewing on these ideas.
They are writing their own changemaker books. They comment frequently about connections they are making to the stories we’ve studied together. We also see them chewing on these ideas through play.
Last week we had some injustices show up at our very own Kindergarten dramatic play vet shop.
- Some believed our Kindergarten vets couldn’t be vets because they were girls. How did they respond? They continued their education and proved the naysayers wrong.
- One vet employee was unfairly fired from her job. What did she do about it? She protested.
- Another employee was sent to jail for being kind to animals. Quickly others spoke up about the injustice to help free their friend.
We love to see the children making sense of these big ideas in their own ways. It leaves us wondering how these stories will impact them moving forward. We wonder together how WE can make a difference. How can we make Kindergarten a better place to be? We know they are starting to see themselves as forces for good.
“When someone gets hurt, I can help them up and get them a band-aid.”
“I don’t think it is okay that a few people’s decisions are making it hard for everyone. We want to get to recess!”
“I spoke up when someone wasn’t treating my friend kindly. I’m not OK with that.”
What will the world look like when we’re all feeling ready to reach out in kindness and ready to speak up about injustices we see?
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