Hard Topics and Young Minds

 

Some people think teaching first grade would be hard because you have to sugar-coat the big topics, but honestly this is not true. They do indeed ask hard questions, typically ones adults don't have the answers for, but that does not mean the answers have to be simplified in a way that makes it not true. 

Since I work at a Christian school, one of the main subjects taught is Bible. All of my students have a foundation in Christianity and are thinking long and hard about what their parents have said and what is being taught in the classroom. One of the hardest parts is when they ask what a deep theological term is without having any idea what they are asking. 

Albert Einstein said, "If you can't explain it to a six year old, you don't understand it yourself." 

As a teacher of six year olds, I am learning I don't understand very much. There are questions I don't know how to simplify the truth of the answer for them. We are going over huge questions that are relevant to the world they live in, and it is my goal and job to help them understand these concepts. We are talking about racism, police officers, and government. My little six year olds understand more than people would think. They have been soaking in all of the information around them, and are struggling to find ways to ask questions and understand what is happening. Their classroom is now a place that is becoming safe to ask questions and discuss hard topics that "grown ups" won't discuss with them. 

Do I bring up these topics with them? No. My lesson plans are first grade. We talk about Rosa Parks not being allowed to sit where she wanted because she looked different, then her changing that. I don't plan on covering police brutality or people being killed because of their skin color. And yet, we have discussed these things in our class because that is what is happening in their world. One of my dear little ones said, "That must make God very sad." in the most sincere and saddened tone a six year old girl can use. My response, "Yes, sweet girl, it does." 

Adults don't often realize that these things are affecting the little minds and that they are still shaping their view of the world. We cannot protect them from everything, but someone has to realize that they are processing all of this too and has to be willing to let them talk it through and give them a good framework. We don't study "history" in first grade. It is called "social studies." First graders don't need "social studies", they need a framework for what they are observing in the world around them; their own studies of their societies. 

This is the goal. This is the aim. To help little minds grow into minds that can process the world and understand that everything has consequences and those consequences shape the world they live in.