Sep. 30, 2008 - My Day at the Fair
The McCormick Freedom Museum, located in the base of the McCormick Tribune Tower sponsored a free Teacher Resource Fair for social studies teachers in September. In an admirably egalitarian gesture, they allowed home educators to attend. So I went.
Free parking! Remarkable in and of itself. In Chicago, I don't care what the sign says, it will cost you $25 to park, unless you just happen to be in by 5am and out at precisely 10:38am on the alternating Wednesday that the garage actually honors the price they advertise. Otherwise, $25. But for me, one block off Michigan Avenue (aka Magnificent Mile), free. I like it already.
Free coffee. Free full breakfast. Nothing like eating a hot breakfast sandwich, nibbling fresh fruit skewers and drinking a free mimosa (with a coffee chaser) while sitting in a window box overlooking the Wrigley Building, with the new Trump tower rising behind it and a host of other still nameless to me but no less inspiring architecture surrounding the landmark buildings. Is that a run-on? I don't care. When life hands you a rare moment of wonderful, you gush.
Every vendor eagerly pressed freebies upon me. Want a copy of the Constitution? It's yours! How 'bout a beautifully bound Civics Engagement curriculum guide? Would you like some free Civics books? You're a home educator? You better take the text for every grade level then. Grab a pencil. No, no, really, take the full four poster Abraham Lincoln set.
This resource fair represents crack for the academic set. If I used all the goodies bestowed upon me, I'd be homeschooling the kids til they were 30.
The fair provided some interesting moments. The librarians, for example. They had a whole Banned Books Week display. Fair enough. I don't consider myself a raging censor. As I flip through a Most Challenged List, though, I see that many of these books were challenged at the middle school library level--usually for cursing, explicit sexual content or occult references. Well, butter my bunky and call me a biscuit, I guess I am a raging censor because I sure wouldn't let *my* middle schooler read most of the stuff challenged therein either. Good thing, I suppose, that I am also my school's librarian. Really. With all the edifying literature in the world, we have to argue about whether a 12 year old show be reading R and X rated topics? Spare me. None of which did I say to the fine librarians manning the booth. And I bit my tongue especially hard when they began to outline how I could download free lesson plans on the evils of the Patriot Act.
The Constitutional Rights display booth intrigued me as well. There, two teachers talked with the lady working the table. Now, I feel quite certain that had I begun talking about Obama in the same way as these three were going on about McCain, the entire fair would have fallen silent and the participants would have gazed at me as if I had loudly passed wind. Yet, the vocal equivalents of this had not a moment's hesitation in speaking thus in front of me, a total stranger. Was the Group Think so secure that they did not even pause to consider the appropriateness of their talk? Don't get me wrong. I know I stood in a First Amendment Museum; the folks had a right to say what they were a sayin'. I found troubling the underlying assumption that all the teachers within earshot would be in agreement with them.
The last peril to negotiate occurred at the BeyondMedia table. I remain less than certain what BeyondMedia actually does. They seemed intrigued to find out I was a home educator. "Are home educators concerned about social justice issues?" No, we are for social injustice, I thought to myself. C'mon, what type of a question is that? It's a "when did you stop beating your wife" question. Why is it that the questions of the "tolerant" so often reflect a startling and engrained intolerant presupposition toward those they are questioning? The answer to the question surely depends on what one views as a social justice issue, doesn't it? I suspected the lady and I might have very different views on that. Do I want to put biblically condemned sinful actions in the social justice realm alongside discrimination and poverty and abuse? No, I don't. Nonetheless, the woman at the booth and I conversed for probably 15 minutes and I'd like to think we both came away enriched by the conversation.
I learned much at the Resource Fair. And the material presented at the booths wasn't half bad either.
Blessings, Holly
Comments
Oct. 4, 2008 - Untitled Comment
Posted by dcellis
That sounds like a very good day. I would've enjoyed being there with you. I don't know that I woul've held my tongue like you did, but I probably would've.
