I just wanted to post a comment about what we had talked about in class tonight with the Thanksgiving example and what age we should teach the reality of these events to our class. It may sound crazy to some people but when I was in school we did not learn the truth about the pilgrims and indians until my junior year. At that point some of us had studied it and learned on our own, but others in class were shocked because they were used to hearing the typical "Thanksgiving Story" and took it for verbatum. I am going to be an elementary teacher and I myself am still not sure when it's a good time to teach children the facts, because I don't want to upset parents.

I am personally glad that I dont think I will ever be in this situation. As a business teacher there arent really any truths or myths that I will have to present to students. The truth about computer history is straight out, these guys stole from these guys who had stole from these other guys. Its fairly easy and I think goodness for that.

As a History person, I believe it is a real injustice to the lives of those who experienced the first Thanksgiving for us to not teach it to our students as it really happened. I understand that there should be some censorship with it for the younger grades, but i think that by at least the 5th grade students should know that Thanksgiving was very different than in the storybooks. I hate the fact that people are ignorant to things such as this, or even to all the reasons behind the Civil War. People should know these things.

I personally feel that young children should not be exposed to the real story behind Thanksgiving. If the parents feels that their child is mature enough to handle it then that is find, but it is not the teacher place to share that terrible time in our history. However, I do believe that at some point, maybe around the 6th grade, the real story should be shared.

I'm not really sure how I feel about when the "right" time it is for children to know about the true happenings of these events. A lot of times I feel that children are exposed to the cruelty of life way to soon. I really believe that children should have somewhat of an imagination in their lives, and by telling them the straight up truth about everything from the very beginning it is really difficult for children to build an imagination.

For example, when I was little I really thought there was a Santa Clause, I thought this till about 5th or 6th grade (that might sound weird to some people) but I really feel like this was just an imaginary exercise and something that kept my childhood very fun and exciting. My younger cousin's parents believe that they should never lie to their children about anything, so from the very beginning they alway knew that there was no real Santa Clause. I don't know about anyone else, but this really makes me sad for my cousins and their childhood. I don't know if this is totally off subject, but this discussion really reminded me about this and how somethings in life can wait for a later time and date to share with younger children. I'm not saying I know the perfect time for children to learn about the true stories in history, but I think that it is safe to say that they shouldn't be taught this in the very beginning of their lives.

i just wanted to share one of my experiences in school concerning stuff like this. it doesnt deal directly with thanksgiving, but it was along the lines of europeans landing in america and basically killing of the indians. in my 6th grade social studies class, we actually had a lesson about how the indians were killed so viciously and for no reason, etc... and part of our creative writing exercise that went along with it was to write a poem from the perspective of one of the indians as the europeans stormed their village. and from what i can remember, i wrote a pretty colorful poem, describing the agony and horror of it all (hehe, i was an imaginative kid). we even colored around our poems and i remember coloring huts that were on fire and decorating the whole page with flames. it seems a bit extreme, but at the time, i was really relating to something i had no personal experience with. granted, it was 6th grade so we were pretty much old enough to handle such a situation. but even for 6th grade, the thought of being able to write about such a situation was exciting and it made me feel grown-up to know i was actually learning about it. i think kids start to catch on to when they're being really "sheltered."

another experience: same teacher - same class - different area in history. we were studying the holocaust and reading one of the many holocaust narratives, etc... our desks were grouped in fours, as a big square already, so after reading about the jews and stuff, the teacher started this exercise that last a couple of days. the people with brown eyes had to sit in one area and the people with blue or green eyes had to sit in another. she purposely segregated us. we weren't allowed to talk to the other group, but we could talk amongst our own. one day the blue/green eyed kids could be "bossy" and tell us what to do, while the next day, it was switched around for the brown eyed kids. but the clencher was this: we had lunch during that period and while at lunch, we werent allowed to sit with our friends and stuff. we had to sit with our eye color group. so we were simulating the jews and their segregation vs. the nazis, etc... and if i remember correctly, we even had to wear some kind of badge if it was our day to be "the jews." it might sound harsh and inappropriate to do that with a class of 6th graders, but boy did we love it! it was great to be put on a personal level with honest parts of our history. this teacher i had was amazing and she didnt get in trouble for doing these kinds of things.

so that doesnt really answer the question, how young is too young? but i do think at a certain point kids start getting all this information outside of school. if you see they're already thinking about it, then address it. no matter how young they are - if its already in their head, then you cant be held responsible for putting it there, right?

I agree with Andrew in that you should at least be aware of what the reality is by 5th grade. I want to even say I learned about true "Thanksgiving" by 4th grade. But I also agree with Betsy. I too was a firm beleiver in Santa Clause till about the 6th grade when I discovered my presents in my mothers trunk. Of course, in my family we still believe anyways, otherwise we dont get Christmas. I thing to a certain age, believing the untruths expands imagination and encourage others to get excited.

I also think there are certain topics to give the half truth until a certain age and others that you shouldnt. I would have been really interested to sit in a class right after September 11th to see what the teachers told they students. Did they wait until they got home? Or did they go about their own way to let them know what was going on? How do you break this down to little students that arent aware of whats going on, but can tell something is wrong?

I think kids should be allowed to decide for themselves. As kids we all constructed our own ideas of what Thanksgiving was to us. For some it was tofurkey and hummus with the dog named Frodo, for others it was a glorious time of celebration with family and a big "spread". I think when kids want to know what they are celebrating, or what Thanksgiving IS, then they should be told both stories so they can know all sides and be able to talk intelligently about it someday.