Teaching First Graders About Native Americans

Becky: (With a book, pointing to illustrations): And this is a special doll called a kachina doll. Members of the Hopi tribe make-

Gaea: (Interrupting): Becky, are Native 'Merkans cannibals?

Jacob (Gaea's cousin): What's a cannibal?

Gaea: Jacob! Don't you remember Grandpa taught us about them? (Triumphantly) They are people. Who eat other people. They live. In. The Amazon.

Becky: No, Native Americans were never--

Jacob: (Interrupting) I remember, I just don't remember what they did.

Becky: Well, that doesn't have much to do with--

Jacob: (Interrupting) In South Africa, we call them "Rehhhhhd Indians."

Becky: (rubbing her eyes) Ohhhhhhhhkaaaaaaay, let's talk about why we shouldn't use that name--

Rotem: (hanging upside down with his ankles hooked around the arms of his chair) REDDDDDDDD INDIANSSSSSSSSSSS! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

End of Scene. (Unfortunately, the music signaling the end of the class period does not mercifully play. There is now a full forty minutes to talk to first-graders about the dangers of racial slurs and reassure them that no cannibals live in Israel, or anywhere else in the Middle East.)