Boston and the Fourth of July

Happy 4th of July everyone! This week in RE, the toddlers and World Travelers celebrated the patriotic holiday in their classrooms.

The toddlers got in the spirit by reading, singing, and playing with toys. Red, white, and blue fun was had by all.

The World Travelers got a tour of Boston from our resident Uncle Sam, Scott Tanona. He talked with them about Boston Commons, Paul Revere and the Old North Church, Concord Bridge, and the Wayside Inn. The tour began with Scott reading the opening of Longfellow's "Tales from a Wayside Inn" and showing the kids pictures of people dressed in colonial garb. Then the travelers reenacted Paul Revere's ride, discussing why the revolutionaries were upset at British rule. This led to a discussion of rules: what makes rules good, why sometimes rules are hard to follow but are still fair, and how some rules are plain unfair. In the spirit of the 4th of July, Scott explained that patriotism is not just following good rules, but trying to change unfair ones. The tour ended with a popcorn game to elucidate social contracts. In the first round, the kids could take either two pieces of popcorn from a bowl or up to 6 pieces from their neighbors. As you might suspect, a lot of the kids chose to get more popcorn, only to have their popcorn taken away by a neighbor. At the end of the round, only 12 pieces had been taken from the bowl and most kids had no popcorn in front of them. In the second round, a rule was added: "no taking popcorn from anyone else." At the end of that round, 60 pieces had been taken from the bowl and every kid had 6 pieces in front of them. The travelers learned that social contracts or "rules not to take other people's stuff" benefited them. Some rules really are good and fair. We need to be mindful of those to make our society function at its best and then direct our energies towards changing unfair rules to make our society even better.

I want to thank Scott Tanona for an excellent tour and providing me with a description of it since I could not be there in person. After reading his description and writing this blog, I'm really sad I missed it! It's great to know we have such wise and entertaining tour guides at the helm while I am gone, though.