Tuesday, January 22, 2008

history vs. the little cartoon girl

For those of you who don't already know yesterday was Martin Luther King Jr. Day...

It's a holiday you know.

No, really it is, do you know how you can tell? You get the day off school if you're a kid... which means you're home with me... if you're K that is.

It also means sleeping in. Oh heavenly heavenly sleeping in until 8:15.

(yes, 8:15 was the exact moment that K woke up).

I thought though that a day home from school and no mail wasn't a sufficient way to celebrate this day in our history so I decided that I would give K a bit of a history lesson and we would talk about what Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had meant to the people of this country.

You see she was *so* horrified when she learned that we once had slavery in the this country. She was *so* mortified when she learned that women and African Americans weren't allowed the same rights as Caucasian men. She was *so* shocked when we explained to her that we were in the midst of our first presidential race where a woman and an African American actually had a real chance at becoming our President (she thought we'd had plenty of women as presidents and was somehow under the impression that MLK had been the president too, I think maybe she has him confused with JFK?).

I thought, given her interest in these areas in the past couple of months, she would be interested in learning more about the man we were celebrating.

I was wrong. She wanted to watch TV that she doesn't normally get to watch while she's at school and that I don't TiVo for her...

Never the less I began to explain the Civil Rights Movement. I tried to go about it gently.

Maybe gently was the wrong way to go about it.

Maybe I shouldn't have tried to be mild for her delicate 5 year old sensibilities... because instead of being enthused about her history lesson on the Civil Rights Movement she wanted to watch Dora the Explorer...

I had forgotten how much I hate that little cartoon girl...

12 comments:

holly said...

oh you can't hate dora. she teaches spanish. probably. queen of hearts now knows what abuella is! that will come in handy at least five times a year. okay once. okay it won't.

i think it is totally great that she was shocked. what we need is to raise people who are outraged at this kind of thing, so they don't do it. good job. :)

The Ferryman said...

Teach me! Teach me!

mielikki said...

She will come around, in her own time. But I can understand your frustration over that matter.

I left an award for you over at my blog. Have fun with it!

Kimberly Vanderhorst said...

Emma isn't allowed to watch Dora. She's bossy enough without that little patch of paint setting an example of it for her. Oi.

flutter said...

I would rather eat my own eye than watch Dora.

AngelConradie said...

aaahhh... trying to get toddlers inspired by history and heroes! i think we've all tried that at some stage and been shot down by either a cartoon character or a lego collection...

carrie said...

Sounds like a recent dinner conversation we had with our kids where they were asking us who usually "wins" in a war. That was a tough one . . .

CamiKaos said...

carrie: we had that one recently too. It was so hard for her to grasp WHY a country would go to war win NO ONE wins..

angel: yes... but I usually win... it was a blow.

flutter: I'd rather eat your eye than watch it too, though that probably isn't the correct response ;)

kimberly: EXACTLY. Why is she so bossy? Luckily K isn't really bossy, she's sassy. She can't watch anything where people back talk.

Mie: Oh I will greatly enjoy my award... on Thursday I'll post about it.

Mr. Fab: OH HE CAN BE TAUGHT!

Holly: I can too. I can hate anyone I want.. except you...

Lisa Wheeler Milton said...

We've had many chats since viewing Hairspray; my kids couldn't understand segregation. Not a bit of it made sense.

I'm glad she mortified; the rest will come.

sybil law said...

Dora sucks ass. That's all there is to it! That show is sooo obnoxious!!!
I think I remember wondering why there weren't female presidents as a kid. It really is shocking, since most kids see their moms as the bosses and the runners of the household.

DaddyKaos said...

It is extremely difficult to explain to a child that civil rights have been denied to someone when a household consists of color blind residents.

While we were raised in a "colored" world we tried to raise you and Xithor in a world that did not know color.

Unknown said...

I have yet to encounter this Dora chick face to face, though Thomas and Elmo have both taken up residence in my home.

Kudos to you for trying to teach the lesson on MLK. My guess is it'll make more sense to the kiddos as they get older and go out into the world more.