Mission Moment: Learning V Knowing

The kids took a field trip today to the RMG Civil Rights Museum.

I asked a group of them what they had learned. A few timid replies mixed with a very loud "Nothin'!"

"Nothing?"

"Yah, nothing. It's the same stuff we get in social studies. Blah, blah, blah."

Saddened at this, but understanding why it may not be connecting, I asked him if he liked going to Popeye's to eat. "Yah." "What if I told you that you couldn't go in." "I'd go anyway. You can't stop me." "But what if I had you arrested?" "I'd do my time."

"You'd do 'your time'? No. No. No. You aren't making the connection. Someone you don't know said 'You can't stop me' and did go to jail. A lot of somebodies you don't know did that. A lot of very brave people did 'your time' for you. But they didn't just 'do their time'. They changed the law. They made history. They made a difference. They made it so you don't have to go to jail just because you are who you are."

He stared back at me with the look only a pre-teen can give. But he wasn't walking away either.

"You think what you saw and what you read are the same thing. They are not. You know your history but you haven't learned form it. Don't just learn, KNOW!"

"Like what?" he replied as a dare.

"That when you take a freedom from one person you can take it from all people."

He looked at me puzzled and walked into lunch. I'll follow up with him later tomorrow and while he's here at camp. I am sure that he can learn to know.