How will you teach Thanksgiving next year?

By Nick McDaniels – If you’ve read any or many of my posts over the past few years, you know that I typically walk a fine line between extremely liberal and imprisonably radical.

This political bent undoubtedly comes through in my classroom practice, yet I’ll I admit that on the issue of teaching Thanksgiving, I have probably been just conservative enough to qualify for potentially existent Rush Limbaugh Excellence in Teacher Award.

This is why I am challenging myself next year, because I really dropped the ball on teaching about it at all this year (other than asking my students what they were thankful for), to teach my students about the real Thanksgiving, the holiday that was conceived after the mythical peaceful dinner between the European invaders and the natives to this continent, the holiday that was thought of primarily as a time to give thanks for the eradication of native tribes from around the Boston area.

With this in mind, I’ve committed myself to doing some more research on the real “First Thanksgiving,” though the event did not really occur at all, and ensuring that my students understand that racist undertones, and overtones, of this uniquely white, European-American holiday. While I certainly see the merits in helping students to realize all they have to be thankful for, it is not in the name of this holiday or its myths that this practice should be adopted. Also, it is the very sentiment that underlies this holidays that has prevented many of my students, 100 percent of them students of color, from having longer lists of things to be thankful for.

You see, my students deserve to know this history, not to spoil their holiday spirit, but to help them reject all of the bad parts about Thanksgiving and declare ownership of the good parts. The original Thanksgiving, declared by Massachusetts Colony Governor John Winthrop, was intended as a celebration of the return of the colony’s militia after that militia slaughtered 700 Pequot Indians, thus, this Thanksgiving feast celebrated a major genocidal action against American Indians. To be fair, the term Thanksgiving may not have come from this event, but rather came from a series of meals hungry Europeans had on a weekly basis after days of fasting which were meant to conserve food. Regardless, the tradition of the post-harvest fall feast we now know as Thanksgiving, is rooted in horrific acts of brutality and hatred, a tradition we should not lightly pass on.

While it would be easy to ignore the myth of a friendly Pilgrim-Indian dinner, it is just as easy to ignore the true history of Thanksgiving. I am challenging myself next year to teach my students the true history of Thanksgiving, to hang on to the important reflective quality of considering what we should all be thankful for, and to push our thinking beyond a simple understanding of historical events to a level of activity devoted to celebrating all of those who have, since the real first Thanksgiving, worked to combat genocide, racism, and hatred. These are the people we should all be thankful for and these people will be my guides for how I am going to teach Thanksgiving. I will be thankful for those of you who will join me in this effort.

What’d ya say Sonny?

By Maureen Look-Ainsworth– Imagine your world if everything you heard sounded like gobbledygook.

Your friends just invited you to attend a football game that would last 2 hours yet you thought you heard them say that you were invited to a cookout. You were thinking food while they were thinking of hard core tackling. You showed up ready to eat and they showed up with sweats and football gear.

What if you missed 75% of conversations around you?  Would you isolated, as if you are missing out of life and friendship altogether?  What if someone cracked a joke and you stood there wanting it to be repeated? Then once repeated then began laughing…it might seem a bit awkward huh?  If people don’t speak, enunciating each syllable words sound like a muffled noise that resembled a foreign language from a distant island.

Just think of how it feels constantly to say, “Could you say that again please?” or “Would you mind repeating that again?” People would look at you as if something were wrong, and guess what? Something Is!  Beyond the physical appearances of “looking normal,” people have misconceptions about what it is to be hearing impaired. I may “look normal” but have hearing deficits that are significant. When people walk away while talking, cover their mouth when they talk or mumble, it is almost impossible for a hearing impaired person to hear.

Hearing impaired people look at body language, find innuendos in conversation that are almost imperceptible to the hearing person. To us the body language speaks its own body’ese” and tells us our gut instinct about a person. In a crowd a hearing impaired person might talk louder in the hope of showing others to speak up more loudly with the insidious background noise. Multiple accommodations are utilized throughout the day to try to understand the spoken language.

While eating in a restaurant, my mind raced attempting to fill in syllables I couldn’t hear with the din of noise swirling around the conversation. I watched my friend’s mouth intently hoping to pick up any kind of syllable or sound as the exterior noise pressed in and pushed her voice away. I fought to stay engaged in the conversation when other noises were louder and therefore more blatant, more attention getting than hers.

After a two hour conversation, I felt exhausted, I had just spent the majority of time trying to grasp the words that were shared and gather the meaningfulness of the conversation.  My mind was numb after attempting to gather information, my brain nitpicking the words apart to see if she meant “ba” or “da” or “puh” or if she said “that the train is coming around the corner” or if I misunderstood it as “the rain is coming down harder.”

It is with great effort that I live my life in a hearing world.
This all happens while wearing my hearing aids!

The noise intensifies and sensory overload occurs. But I my blessings abound.  How often I wish that I could be “normal” BUT, I can walk, think, speak, see, and have intelligent conversation. Do me a favor today, plug your ears and listen to your friend speak. Could you hear them? Could you hear where they were going to meet you or what time your group study was? How did you feel when all you heard was muffled noise, compounded by surrounding background noise. You don’t know what you’ve got until you lose it.

Be grateful for the gifts God has given you, especially the ones you take for granted.

Rekindle the Light: Giving Thanks for Joyful Service

“Sometimes our light goes out but is blown into flame by another human being. Each of us owes deepest thanks to those who have rekindled this light.”   -Albert Schweitzer

As we gather around our Thanksgiving tables this year, let us remember – not only to be thankful for the physical blessings – but also for the remarkable individuals whose efforts have ignited a world of flame with their passion, dedication, and efforts of service.

May each of us dig deep this holiday season, when times are difficult for many, and take heed of the call to “Be The Difference” to others.  And most of all —  may we do it joyfully!

Marquette Alum, Theresa Loth's homeroom at a school in Washington D.C. give thanks