I don't celebrate thanksgiving. I don't believe anyone really should given how ignorant people are about the real first thanksgiving because they were never told what actually happened and continued handing down misinformation, like the school system also teaching children partially or completely incorrect information regarding dinosaurs.
When thanksgiving rolls around I utilize that time to celebrate native Americans. I wish I could I teach them the true story but that would inevitably blow up in my face. Americans in general are so attached to the idea of the symbiotic picturesque first thanksgiving that, when challenged they become irate, treat you like they suspect you of treason or terrorism and can usually only hear every other word you speak/type/ what have you.
I fully respect other families’ choice to celebrate thanksgiving. Especially when the focus is on what we are truly thankful for. It's a good spin on a horrific holiday.
I also fully appreciate the people who could care one way or the other and just utilize the day as an excuse to excess amounts of food. I think the entire portion of the country that isn't in a state of poverty should rethink the eating excess part and instead donate food to shelters and the like.
Someday, when I know I'm finished with teaching I will tell the truth about the first thanksgiving. I already have to reteach dinosaurs which truly puzzles me.
How can you tell children information about animals that lived millions of years ago when it contradicts every fact scientists have been able to find.
Dinosaurs are far from being figured out. Fossils can only tell a person so much. But, until I delved into the world of dinosaurs independently that I found out no one has any clue what color they actually are but I was taught they were colored with earth tones. It seemed plausible so I never questioned this “fact” I was given until I thought about what my teacher had said. Not only did we apparently know what color dinosaurs were but they were all the same color….*crickets*. …*blink blink* wouldn't we need preserved skin to tell us that? And considering skin doesn't fossilize how could my teacher possibly know what color they were or anything about them for that matter.
I was slowly beginning to realize if I wanted real answers about real things I couldn't take my text book or teacher’s lessons as the absolute. I couldn't trust that, and not in malice, my teachers had the right answer on anything.
As I'm sure you can imagine this got me its trouble quite a bit with teachers and peers.
Jurassic Park had come out and on a weekend my mom took me and my brother to see it. I loved it. Still do. But the movie is not scientifically sound. I noted the changes the author of the book, the director, the writers, and the visual effects made.
I was so excited that when I went into school that Monday I instantly wanted to talk about the movie.
Well that feeling was quickly deflated when I explained the raptors were grossly enhanced for the fear factor. In the eyes of my peers a movie couldn't be wrong but I sure could!
Many years later I'm still a dinosaur nerd and I finally get to teach children about them and how they are still so much a mystery that scientists have millions more questions than answers. That's what makes it fun. The not knowing and making an educated guess.
Let me steer this back to thanksgiving. Like I said, I don't practice it. I can't practice something that never happened. But I can teach children about native Americans, their traditions, their appreciation and devotion to nature. If I were to teach about the pilgrims what could I honestly say?
“Well kids some very white people with a sense of entitlement used the native Americans to figure out how to live off the land and once that was mastered decided murdering them, sending them back to family members to be used as slaves, and raping the women the best next course of action. Then, once we thinned out the herd we took everything from them including any and all land so the very white ignorant people could continue to produce more ignorant entitled beasts”
And don't even get me started on Christopher Columbus who's only talent was getting really lost and claiming land that he had no right to and mislabeling the native race.
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