So this is just funny- well in hind sight- its a funny story. One of those moments where my attempts at being a brilliant teacher are hijacked and I'm left oscillating between mortification and pondering how in the world did everything veer so off course.

It begins with the Texas standards and the fact that come February certain topics have got to be covered, among them American presidents and at this grade level, three in particular: Abraham Lincoln, George Washington and whoever the current president is at the time. We write a letter to the president and guess what? He writes back! And we introduce our first and 16th president. While it's impossible to talk about George Washington without talking about honesty, it's equally impossible to talk about Abraham Lincoln without talking about the Civil War and freedom for all. While we temper our discussions to match the age and maturity of our students anyone listening in would be surprised at how curious they are, how many questions they ask, how much they already know, and how interested they are in learning all about such issues. At the same time their true understanding of the topic is convoluted at best. This particular class was exceptionally interested in slavery and the Civil War and the role Abraham Lincoln played. Anyway after several question and answer session about the Civil War in which I was in the hot seat and left wondering exactly how much to share on the subject of war and slavery I navigated the waters as carefully and as age appropriately as I could, careful to avoid details of physical violence, as always reminding myself that curiosity, even at this young age should be rewarded with honest and frank answers because this is the beginning of their quest for knowledge which would hopefully carry them all the way through college. Fast forward a week or two. It's recess time and our class had been having a little trouble playing appropriately and we were discussing what the new and abridged rules for the class, given the difficulties we'd been having.

No wresting, hitting, pretending to shoot people etc and thus cops and robbers is banned as a game...any questions?

Hand it the back row. It's Johnny.

Yes Johnny.

Ms. Stacy, can we play slaves?

gasp, gag, choke- Can you repeat that Johnny?

Can we play slave? We won't chain anyone up, promise, and we'll just pretend to beat them real gentle, promise! (Jane chimes in that she has first dibs on being Abe Lincoln)

Deep breath deep breath deep breath. NO NO Johnny no. You may NOT, at any time play slave!

Awwww. Pleeeeeaaase.

Either think fast or your career is over.

Johnny, (voice still high pitch and squeaky) slavery is a very serious matter! People should never, ever, chain or beat anyone or treat them as a slave, not even for pretend. Abraham Lincoln and lots of people worked very hard to end slavery and... (I begin to mentally pat myself on the back. This is good stuff, I can bring this back around. I can fix this)

Johnny and his classmates are now hanging their heads in shame...Ok, we promise, we'll never ever play slave, ever ever ever,...right, we understand, not ever at home either, we promise.

Now obviously the chaining and beating of slaves had never entered our "age appropriate" discussions. As often happens in a classroom the discussion on a subject at home exceeds the discussion at school because parents are less encumbered by the need to be appropriate in order to keep their jobs! Johnny was intrigued by the additional details he had learned about slavery either from his parents or the media. As the teacher I was charged with tempering Johnny's zeal to share those details with his friends. Friends who would go home and discuss such details with mommy and daddy, who would in turn email the teacher demanding certain answers about what exactly was being discussed in Kindergarten and how appropriate it was. Thankfully Johnny never again asked permission to play slave and we quickly moved on to learning the very interesting details of GroundHog day, a much easier subject to teach.