Should kids be taught the Disneyfied version of the First Thanksgiving in schools or a more accurate version?
958550
Young kids should learn about the process of being thankful before you acquaint them with the concept of conquest. Give them separate stories to give them a basis for comparison.
100652
Definitely. Less of a chance for children to "forget" what they learn. They will still have the same amount of days off, just spread throughout the year.
740242
I understand your way of thinking but in no way must we change the name "Christmas".  Its up to us to keep the real reason we celebrate Christmas alive and ensure our children learn about it. As for those who are not religious, I cant speak for them, they will enjoy the christmas period in their own way. I am not a practicing christian, I just dont want it to get lost among all the present buying and the rest.  Children who celebrate this time also enjoy the nativy at school  and carol singing and we must remind them of it, not  destroy it
693906
Why not take advantage of the fact that they are young enough to reprogram them out of the typical "one size fits all cookie cutter" approach to learning? Have you looked into other methods along the home-schooling spectrum? I would pick up a few good books about home schooling elementary aged children and start getting creative instead of relying solely (if at all) on a packaged curriculum.
959291
because they are programed from schools not to question what authorities teach them! Thanksgiving was originally a clebration of a massacure by the Pilgrams of Indian people! You wont find that in the history books, nor that Custer was tresppassing and in violation of the treaty of 1868 when he invaded a foregion country known as The Great Sioux Nation. So we dressed him up in a fine arrow shirt! I think he got the point! His body contrairy to popular belief was not left alone he was cut up in to pieces and scattered! He died at the hands of those he loved to kill, our women and children finished him off! Just a little known fact.
820518
Everyone deserves information.  The purpose of school is to educate, after all.\n\nAnd you really should be taught religion by someone who has actually studied it.  Literature and Humanities teachers usually have entire libraries detailing Christianity, Islam, Sumerian gods, and hundreds of other religions.\n\nBesides, a lot of children only learn religion from one source:  their families.  That's very nice, but learning religion from your family has a couple of flaws:\n1.  Usually a religion stresses that other religions are wrong (especially monotheistic religions).  As such, parents are less willing to teach other religions.  The most information a child gets is, "That religion is wrong."  \n2.  Most family members are not qualified to teach about other religions.  That's like asking your father to teach you Calculus when he can't even multiply fractions.\n\nSo, learning religions from family members can often be counter to education.  At least in school, there is someone who is learned in these topics--in theory; there is always the risk of a teacher with a hidden agenda.\n\nI support teaching various religions in school.  It's as useful as teaching literature.  No, it won't get you a job necessarily, but it does enrich the person as he learns many viewpoints.\n\nEdit:  I see some people are confusing religion with morality--a common mistake.  I support schools teaching about religions, but it's up to the parents to teach about morals.  If the parents are amoral, then we can hope that the peers can correct the child's misconceptions.
518396
It is WAY better to be raised by loving caring parents then have your child being raised in a daycare. Being with your child teaching them what could be better and at least you know what they are learning and not learning from other children who may not have the best influences
899612
good question, when you get the answer, please share. I think the first Thanksgiving they probably had wild turkey, and deer and duck. God bless****
772648
I think the degree to what the public has made holidays is disgraceful. Whether people believe or not(I'm a believer/Christian) they shouldn't take Jesus out of Christmas and the Christian heritage of the Pilgrims out of Thanksgiving just because they want to.
448626
By using units they understand like sharing sweets, marbles, biscuits cakes etc. It gives them something they can relate to.\nSuch as 26 children share 80 Smarties, how many does each child have? How many are left over for teacher? Do you think that's fair? Hold their interest, it works a treat.\nDon't be too quick to give the answer, give them a chance to think.
806173
How about having your child take each one of the "H's" and write just a little about  each that he/she is thankful for?...I think this would give some simple, practical structure to the speech, and should play right into the ability level and creativity of a 10 or 11 year old...Good luck...(Former H.S. English teacher)
754379
Children learn in spite of their teachers....The first thing I was taught at teacher training. \n\ndrilling is fine provided you understand what you are learning. The multiplication tables are a good example of this. We used to memorise those tables like a poem. Did it help? Yes becasue they provided us with quick answers when dealing with more complex issues. \n\nThe fact is that there are some things you just need to know. You can either make the effort to remember it (and there are lots of techniques for that) or you can look it up in a book every time you need to know.
159870
Schools are for educating children in academia.\nHomes should be the place morals are taught.\nMore & more I see schools, the N.E.A., the government, trying to indoctrinate children with what they believe is right.\nMy idea of family values won't necessarily concur with those of any of my child's teachers.  Even the teachers will all have a different outlook on which behaviors are correct.  Unless, of course, they get their guidelines from the N.E.A., then we'd have a government entity trying to teach morals to our kids. The N.E.A. is an aggressive group that wants to indoctrinate our kids from Kindergarten through highschool.\nJust read some of their policies they advocate.
526203
Yes i am totally in agreement.The teachers now a days expect the parents to teach your child at home,i believe in helping your child,but i refuse to teach my child and pay the taxes that we do.Now a days the children will be left behind with what is being taught,but not being explained to them.My kindergartner's teacher is complaining of his reading,excuse me,i never learned how to read until the second grade.See Jane run,See Dick get Spot,you know?It is totally a money issue not a caring child issue,or things would not be like this in our school systems.Sorry for the bluntness,but this is also a touchy subject for me as well.Take Care!
494088
i believe children should be taught about Christ from day one.But the age of accountability would depend on the maturity of that child my children were 14 and 15 when they started asking questions and trying to do better but Ive met children as young as 9 that would tell you they knew they were doing wrong in the eyes of God not only their parents and were sincere in saying so
857943
If either of you celebrate Hanukkah then it's okay.  Teachers really appreciate the thoughtfulness of students who buy or make something themselves.  Not food, though.  People don't generallly eat food prepared in another persons house unless they are familiar with the cleanliness, etc.  Also, if the teacher keeps kosher and you do not then he/she can not eat the item.  That doesn't mean he/she would not appreciate the gesture though.  If I were you, I would buy a gift certificate for Starbucks (here in our area they are as inexpensive as $5.00 each).  That and a nice card or handwritten note of appreciation would mean a great deal.  Happy Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzai, etc.
857750
OK, I'll give this a stab. Once upon a time, I taught upper elementary school in a inner city that is now far, far away. A report on NPR's marketplace inspired me to put together a unit on toys. \n\nI began by reading the short story "The Lesson" by Tony Cade Bambara aloud to the students. In the story, a "nappy-headed woman" with too much education and no makeup takes a group of kids from Harlem to the toy store FAO Schwartz in Manhattan. By doing this, she shows them that there's a world outside their Harlem neighborhood, and in this world, they don't have much power or money. The narrator--one of the Harlem kids--is angry, really angry at the woman who taught her this lesson.\n\n"You know," said one of my former students about a year later, "We hated you just like those kids in the story hated that woman."\n\n"I know," I said. By then I had learned that if you tell kids they are any kind of disadvantaged, even if you do so by telling them you grew up disadvantaged, too, they will hate you for it. \n\nBut I wasn't done with the unit. I had discussion questions for them to write about, and one of them was "Who are the people who buy the toys at FAO Schwartz?" The kids' answers were mostly some variation of "rich people".\n\nNext up, I had them go home and look at the "Made in" tags on three of their own toys, or those of a sibling, neighbor, or cousin if they were "too old" for toys. Actually, this was also a way out for kids who couldn't afford to own three toys.\n\nThe next day we compiled the results of our survey. I did that because I had two different figures for the percentage of toys made in China, and I wanted them to participate in gathering our own data: primary research. Some of the kids had obviously not done their research, but I included their made up answers (like "Made in Africa") anyway. Our results showed a percentage in between the two percentages I had from my research. In all three cases, we had figures that showed more than half the toys sampled were made in China.\n\nNext, I prepared them for an article I'd adapted from the newspaper by bringing in maps and coffee table books about China. I showed them, for example, terraces on the sides of mountains and a photograph of people in western Sichuan province with 100 pound tubs of manure on their backs, preparing to hike five miles into the mountains to lay manure on their fields.\n\nAt this point, I always asked the small group I was showing this particular photograph a question. Given a choice, would they rather come to school, read some stories, do some science, work some math problems, have recess, lunch, and maybe computer class, or would they rather hike five miles into the mountains with a hundred-pound tub of manure on their backs?\n\nWell, most of them would rather come to school. But there was always one or two who would say, "Give me the tub of manure."  These are your "kinesthetic learners", the kids who learn best by moving. In one case the kid was also a student with a high naturalistic intelligence (who happened to be born into a family with no interest in nature) and a truancy problem. I often think of that kid, and how happy he would be if he lived where I live now. \n\nAs a general rule, kinesthetic learners are more likely to be put in special ed, to drop out of school, and to end up in jail. They are the group of students that we as educators fail the most. And by fail, I mean we don't do right by them.\n\nAnyway, in the next part of the lesson, my students were to read an article I'd adapted from The Washington Post. The article told the story of a teenager who had travelled from western Sichuan province to the Special Economic Zone of Shenzhen, outside Hong Kong. \n\nIt explained how she'd gotten a job in a toy factory as a sort of human conveyor belt, moving partially manuf