I'm From Africa

Hello all :)

Today, we discussed ancestry and immigration in second grade :) The kids' homework last night was to find out which countries their ancestors came from and bring the information back so we could graph the info today in class.

So of course not every student brings their paper back, but of those who did we have enough to list 19 different countries on our chart.

Now, I wish I could post a picture on the internet without risking being sued so you could see the complexions of all my children. They are all white. WHITE with blond hair and blue eyes... it's rare that anyone has hair a shade darker than brown. I have one little Hispanic girl, and one girl with the same complexion as my brother David (for those who know him) so a little darker than pale, almost like a sun tan. She is constantly trying to convince us that she is black. I've met her parents. She is not black. Perhaps generations ago :) but for now, she is not black. I also have one boy whose mom is white and his dad is black, my only actual child who has any hint of actual color to his skin.

So we're going through the list of surprising countries like Russia, England, Scotland, Ireland, Czechoslovakia, etc. Very European :) And someone says Africa, so we list it.

After we have our master list I let the kids raise their hand if I mention a country that one of their ancestors is from. So it should come as no surprise when half the class raises their hand for England and Germany.

My little sped friend did not bring his paper back, so as we're going through the different countries, he is raising his hand for every one. Russia, Germany, Czechoslovakia, etc and his vote is being counted because I'm a nice teacher. So because of his vote every country we list has at least two votes. So we get down to Africa, and I'm expecting him to raise his hand and vote again, and low and behold the only person raising HER hand is my tan skinned little girl. My half black child does not raise his hand...the ONLY time he does not.

I love teaching kids because they always keep you guessing.


(On a side note. I do realize that you do not have to have dark skin to have ancestors from Africa, and you do not have to have pale skin to have ancestors from Europe. But this story would not be very funny if I was politically correct don't you agree?)