This year, we are bringing Village reading into our morning literacy block (one part of our routine that we keep in place during Village.) We had noted that we often have rich discussions with small groups of kids about things that have happened in the past - either Villages past or the "real world" past. We wanted to find a way to bring some of that richness into the game for a bigger group of kids.
We tried it out with a great text that "translated" the Bill of Rights - providing the original language and then an elementary friendly version. I asked students to choose the amendment they felt was the most important. The conversation was rich and interesting. Students listened to each other carefully and considered each others' viewpoints. In the Herons, there were many kids who thought that the first amendment with freedom of speech and freedom of assembly was the most important. But several students felt that the fifth amendment was the most important because it meant you couldn't be put in jail for no reason and the government couldn't take your property. One student was a fan of the fourth amendment - he argued very persuasively that it would be awful if the government or the police could just go into your home whenever they wanted to and take whatever they wanted to.
We also read a series of blog entries about a Village who didn't meet the requirements of their land agreement and was forced to forfeit their land. Part of the story centered on a law that allowed peeps to leave a meeting whenever they wanted to - they just lost their vote for the day when they left. When this law was proposed in Little Falls, the citizens were intrigued but many remembered the cautionary tale they had read. Usually this "government by attrition" is a popular idea. Kids really want to get going on their houses and, paradoxically, the really hate the idea of other people getting to vote for things that they aren't allowed to vote on. It's different when they leave the meeting because then they're choosing not to vote instead of being kept from voting (a fine but very important line.) This time, students were very thoughtful about all of the things that could go wrong - power grabs, corruption, changes to repeal laws. Soon there was a long list of things that the meeting couldn't vote on if "more than 10 people" left the meeting. In the end, the proposal did not pass - the first time in a long time that I can remember a proposal like this failing. Usually, students have to find out the hard way.
It really did get me thinking about the power of knowing history. In Village, there is a rich oral history handed down from fifth to fourth graders. Students know things that they never experienced directly. Twelve years ago, there was a counterfeiting scandal that doubled the price of everything in the store. The students involved are now seniors in college but I have heard some of the current fifth graders explaining to the fourth graders that counterfeiting is bad because it can cause inflation - everything can get a lot more expensive. As George Santana said, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." Village gives us a powerful way to make the lessons of history and being a citizen in a democracy unforgettable.
By bringing students together to do readings related to history and Village, we hope that we can amplify and bring forward some of the ways Village resonates with the "real world."
On a related note - the state legislature is in session right now and it is amazing the number of parallels students can find between their work and what's going on in the capital. It's a great time to sit down with your fourth or fifth grader and read local papers or MPR's Capitol View blog. From what governments should pay for to rules about how land can be used - there are so many things that connect with the work your child is doing. -MMM
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