So today at school, I was teaching this really thought pro­vo­king les­son to my second and third gra­ders during Social Studies…

Well, not really. We were intro­du­cing the new text book and were rea­ding about the four dif­fe­rent regions in Cali­for­nia, desert, moun­tain range, coas­tal range, and valleys. And I was asking a very basic level ques­tion. One I belie­ved all 7 and 8 year olds could easily answer.

SM: (in her best teacher voice) Now class, do you think that our city loo­ked the same say… 15 or 20 years ago.

Class: Nooooo

SM: What do you think might have been different?

Class: Oh, oh, pick me, pick me!!

SM: Yes You.

You: Peo­ple rode hor­ses around ins­tead of cars. Because they didn’t have cars.

SM: 15 years ago? Um, OK? Wha­te­ver. How about You#2 (one of the smar­ter boys in the class, truth.)

You#2: Well, back then our region was very smoky.

SM: (intri­gued) Smoky? How so?

You#2: Well you see, Since they nee­ded to com­mu­ni­cate and there was no way to send let­ters, peo­ple had to send up smoke sig­nals. It’s like their way of communicating.

SM: We’re tal­king 15 years ago You#2. Only 15 years. Are you sure?

You#2 in uni­son with the whole class: Ya, it’s true. (Wide eyes…serious look… and nods all around)

SM: Ok, Class… Let’ move on.

SM: (to self) Boy, we’ve got a long way to go…