Sunday, May 18, 2008

And his shirt doesn't help either

C has had a series of "literature projects" due each week at school. Given his WWII obsession and unwillingness to follow directions, I suspect that his output has been rather different from what his teacher expected. The first week was supposed to be a "banner" about a book. C constructed a 3-dimensional military tank out of paper and attached it to a piece of paper (the "banner") with a string. I didn't see last week's, which was a mobile; I only hope that he didn't make the cutouts in the shape of swastikas.

This week, he was assigned to make a mask. His choice of character is not unexpected.

Yes, I tried to encourage him to choose anyone other than Hitler. Yes, I have an e-mail in to his teacher apologizing. Yes, I started to try to explain to him how Hitler's image remains very disturbing to a lot of people, but stopped when I realized I might be doing more harm than good. How to explain to a seven-year-old how the horrors of a war that ended before his grandparents were born are still so resonant?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

I love C.

Anonymous said...

Hi Sarah!!
I'm Andrés Hernández from Spain you don't remember me but I was invited to your wedding.
I'm very happy to read from you and Dan and I congratulate you two for your two magnificent children.
I've been reading a little bit the blog and I've become C's first fan.
About the nazi paraphernalia it's clear this is Dan's fault, you should blame him inmidiatly.
Say Hi to Dan.
I send you best wishes and my e-mail ahernan1@uao.es

Rob said...

Well, there you have it.