A lesson in learning...

I like the motto of trying to learn something new everyday. Rick and I try to pass this along to the kids in some form or another. As it turns out, that motto works both ways. On most days our kids teach us something new!
MaKenna has be sick, she came down with a stomach, fever bug and has really been under the weather. Just lying on the couch and in her bed for most of the day. It is so unlike her. She has been very weepy and wanting me to just sit at the end of the couch or at the foot of her bed. I think she just wants me close. Poor thing! This morning MaKenna started to panic, thinking that she had missed school. Our conversation went like this...

"Mom, is today a school day? I said, "yes, it's Monday but you don't have school today

because it's a holiday" "What holiday is it Mom?" "It's Martin Luther King, Jr. Day", I said.

"What do we do for MLK, Jr. day?" she asked. I said " well, we could talk about who

MLK, Jr. was and what he did". I went on to explain that MLK, Jr. fought for the Black people so that they could have the same civil rights that White people had. Civil rights such as being able to drink from the same water fountains, ride the same buses, go to the same schools, vote, etc. as White people. MaKenna then asked me "Mom, are we White people?" I said "yes, we are." She said "you mean tan, right?!" I said "no, we are considered white people." At this point MaKenna now says "so MLK, Jr. tried to change Black people into white/tan people?" I said, "no, he tried to give the Black people the same chances as White people." MaKenna pulled up her shirt sleeve and said [rather perturbed with me, I might add] "why do you keep saying White people? We are tan, this skin is not white!"

I tried to teach MaKenna something about Martin Luther King, Jr. this morning but I think that she ended up teaching me something. That lesson was that MaKenna didn't even really notice that skin color was a defining factor until I pointed it out to her. She didn't define a group of people by a physical characteristic... and I like that! I love the innocence of children and I love to see how their minds work. In so many ways it is refreshing and puts a bright spot on my heart!