On Nov. 9, educators at Bruce Vento Elementary in St. Paulfielded an onslaught of tough questions from students. Some wanted to know if they would be sent away, or if their parents would be sent away. Others were trying to make sense of the wall, wondering if Donald Trump intended to build a wall between black and white people. And at least one student raised the concern that black people would be forced into slavery.
This list of post-election inquiries from students in a public preK-5 school may sound hyperbolic. But to these children — who are trying to make sense of adult conversations and news clips at home — asking questions of this magnitude isn’t an attempt at seeking attention. It’s simply an attempt to brace themselves for, potentially, yet another wave of adverse circumstances. The vast majority of students at Bruce Vento are already living in a state of uncertainty that goes hand-in-hand with poverty, coping with things like hunger at home and acts of violence in the communities they fled, along with the communities they now live in.
[For more of this story, written by Erin Hinrichs, go to https://www.minnpost.com/educa...learning-environment]
Comments (0)