Molly - Sarah Monzon Page 0,39
falsehood that the holiday somehow celebrates the cooperation of Pilgrims and Native Americans when there is no historical foundation for such a production?”
“No buckle shoes and feather headdresses?” I gasped in mock horror.
She elbowed me. “If my students were to put on a holiday production in November, I don’t see why the leading roles couldn’t be of Sarah Hale and Abraham Lincoln. Instead of starving Puritans, there’d be the campaign of uniting a war-torn country on the back of nationalism.”
I crossed my eyes. “How very festive.”
“And not in the least a semi-mythical fabrication.” She grinned at me before waving again at Chloe. “You do have a point, though. History is full of people and people make mistakes. Sometimes heinous ones. Thomas Jefferson, for example, is hailed for his authorship of the Declaration of Independence but he also entered into a sexual relationship with a fifteen-year-old slave and kept the children of their union as slaves as well.”
I winced. “Would you teach young children that?”
She didn’t answer for a long time. So long, in fact, that I’d begun to think she wouldn’t answer at all.
“White-washing history is a big problem, and I think we short-change children when we not only ignore the injustices of the past but glorify some of them as well. How much better would it be if we, as adults, took those moments to impress upon young minds conscience, equality, and sensitivity to how some people groups treated others and how they should have been treated? Sometimes we forget that certain events in history still influence and shape lives of marginalized individuals today. Japanese Internment camps, forced sterilization of Native American women, and the suppression of the right to vote by Jim Crow laws are just a few examples of injustices that darkened our country a generation past.”
She paused again. “But would I expose all the dirty details of historical figures? Especially to the youngest learners? No. Despite what some people believe, I do have some common sense.
“But I wouldn’t build those historical figures up quite as heroically as some curricula do either. And, if a student happened to read a biography on a person and discovered some of his or her seedy decisions, I’d be there to help explain and enlighten in any way that I could.”
I tried to picture what it would be like to talk to Chloe about some of the things Molly brought up. Showing Chloe drawings about people chained together on slave ships would scar her tender heart. While I didn’t want to lie to my daughter, I did want to protect her from some of the crueler things of the world, both in the present and the past.
Since she was only four, I had a few years yet to think about how I’d broach tough subjects, but maybe I should consider starting small early on so she’d have a wider perspective as she grew and could have a sensitive spirit for others like Molly said.
I studied Molly from the corner of my eye. While a psychologist might have a field day with her compulsory need to always tell the truth, I rather admired the quality. It couldn’t be easy, especially when faced with certain consequences. Made her rather brave, really. And, yes, while the root of her unwavering honesty lay with a childhood trauma, she seemed to have found a way to cope that made her a better person for it.
“Should we go see the Truffula tree now?” I asked, mentally stepping back. I’d wanted to know the reasons behind her ideology, but I hadn’t anticipated her answer making me like her more. “I promised a Dr. Seuss field trip, and what would be better than a physical representation of his favorite book?”
She hiked a brow at me. “You know Truffula trees aren’t real, don’t you?”
“I know no such thing.” Chloe called for me to watch her go down the slide again, and I waved her over as soon as her feet touched the ground. “Let’s show Miss Molly Dr. Seuss’s inspiration for addressing environmental and industrial issues through cartoon and rhyme.”
Chloe brushed her hair out of her face. “The Lorax?”
Molly seemed surprised so I explained. “I take her to the Geisel Library every year in March for Dr. Seuss’s birthday. The kids can’t see the original manuscripts or the drawings of his that the library has on collection, but they do up a nice exhibit. I don’t think there’s a Seuss book Chloe isn’t familiar with.”
Scripps Park wasn’t too far away.