Today is Monday, November 7, 2016. Last week we started our centers on Thursday which got off to a great start. I looked at some of the RAFTS quizzes this weekend and some were outstanding. If we think back to last week, we know that RAFTS was one of our four centers. The other three were Notice and Note with Mr. C, a TED Ed Lesson, and finding as much background information that we could about the Mexican Revolution. In our novel Esperanza Rising, the main protagonist (Esperanza) is from a state in Mexico called Aguascalientes and the story is set in the 1930's. Before the 1930's, Mexico had experienced conflict with the government and it's citizens. This period of conflict was called the Mexican Revolution. If we can understand this then we can better understand what will happen next in the story and why it is happening. On page 11 in Esperanza Rising, Pam Munoz Ryan mentions the Mexican Revolution when she writes,
"Mama nodded and bit the corner of her lip in worry. They both knew that even though it was 1930 and the revolution in Mexico had been over for ten years, there was still resentment against the large landowners.
'Change has not come fast enough, Esperanza. The wealthy still own most of the land while some of the poor have not even a garden to plot. There are cattle grazing on the big ranches yet some peasants are forced to eat cats. Papa is sympathetic and has given land to many of his workers. The people know that.'"
Our Vsauce this week is about Cruel Bombs. It's only scary if we stop and think about it, and most of the time we live in ignorance to the fact that the U.S. has control of a nuclear arsenal. If the U.S. were embroiled in a direct conflict, we would hope that the leaders of our military would think very hard about using such devastating weapons. I always wonder, when I think about things like the Mexican Revolution, if the U.S. had had cruel bombs earlier in history, would we have used them on other U.S. citizens during our own civil war? We'll never truly know. As you work and learn today, don't forget to think deeply, have fun, and enjoy.
Paz Afuera,
Mr. C
From the cluttered mind of C, Teacher
Kenosha Unified School District
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