Blackness in 5th Grade

In Spectacular Things Happen Along the Way, a lot of the abilities of the children surprised me. I'm sure it surprised most readers. The type of information they collected, the way they analyzed it... all of these things are very impressive for 5th graders. But it wasn't their ability to perform these tasks that jumped out at me the most. It was their insight.

One of the students, when the class was preparing questions for an interview with a Reverend, wondered if he would be allowed to ask whether the students' "blackness" was a reason they did not get a new school. That kind of social critique is incredibly profound for a 5th grader.

I know when I was growing up, issues of race or class were never discussed in class. We were happy in our affluent, predominately White neighborhood, and never mentioned class differences until at least freshman year of high school. My sister and I were the only black kids in our middle school, and we never wondered why. It never occurred to us that our father made more money than most African Americans. We never connected race to class or opportunity. It just wasn't how we thought... and it sure wasn't going to be brought up in an actual lesson plan.

It's interesting to see a 10 year old already making connections to race and privilege. And according to the author, that mentality was commonplace in class. That kind of mature perspective is impressive, but I have to wonder if it's a positive thing. On one hand, I find it disturbing that children so young are already connecting their misfortune with the color of their skin. On the other hand, why shield them from a harsh truth that they will have to learn eventually? I guess I still have mixed feelings about it.