1 Mother 2 Another

Last week I volunteered in Maddie’s
class to talk about art; it’s a monthly district-wide
program, and I very much look forward to it each time. In both
Cora’s class and Maddie’s class, we have the most
interesting discussions. I love seeing how children look at art.


And we have the most, um, enlightening discussions.

This past week the theme was Animals In
Art; each painting I brought in focused on or had animals in it in
some way. The kids enjoyed seeing animals depicted in various ways
over the centuries, and we were having a great time talking about
what we saw.


We got to picture of a Diego Rivera mural – “The
Conquest of Cortes” – that depicted the conquistador
landing at Veracruz. In the painting, Cortes is already enslaving
the natives, even while the boat is still loaded with supplies he
brought for colonizing the land.


Holding up the enlarged picture, I tapped suggestively on a portion
of the picture that showed several sheep and horses in a hold on
the ship, a couple of the many things the Spanish introduced to the
Americas. “Can anyone tell me something the Europeans brought
with them to the Americas?” I asked, again tapping on the
livestock.


One boy’s hand shot up excitedly and I pointed at him, happy
about his enthusiasm.


“Diseases!” he burst out proudly.


Something ELSE the Spanish introduced to the Americas, but not the
answer I was looking for.


I guess the kids aren’t getting the whitewashed version of
Plymouth Rock any more . . .


Um, happy Thanksgiving?