Ever since my son was a week old, I have read to him. Reading is special mother-son time we spend together, and I know I am instilling in him a love for books and discovering good stories. So, over the weekend, when we went to a local Christmas market to see Santa, we were excited to see someone selling Usborne Books.
One of the new books we found was a collection of illustrated classics, and the first story we read that afternoon was Robin Hood. Midway through the condensed story, I found it necessary to stop and have a mini lesson on two topics: socialism and taxes.
As with many children's books, the pictures are plentiful and words are limited, providing just enough to give the story context. So, by simply reading the words of the story to my son, he was getting the message to be rich must be bad. After all, Robin Hood was always stealing from the "rich" and giving it to the poor people.
Thus began the discussion of transfer of wealth. My son was eating a snack of cheerios (honey nut sans milk) and I pointed out the fact that he was rather "rich" with cereal, having a full bowl. He grinned and agreed with me. Then I got another bowl and took a portion of his cereal away. My son wasn't too pleased, but I said I was pretending to be Robin Hood stealing from the rich to give to the poor.
But, then I was conflicted because I wondered was Robin Hood truly spreading the wealth around providing a welfare service because that image didn't fit the one of a rebel fighting the heavy-handed taxman, the Sheriff of Nottingham. So, the discussion turned to why was Robin Hood stealing?
In the story the villagers were being heftily taxed but the Sheriff all of a sudden doubled the tax, and if the people didn't pay they would be kicked out of their homes and businesses. It was at this point, when the people were distressed wondering where the money would come from to pay taxes, that the money mysteriously appeared on their doorsteps.
This led my son to ask, "What is tax?" which prompted me to go to the cabinet and get a glass.
When I returned I asked him for his juice while explaining that adults have to pay the government a portion of the money they earn. I told him if you own a house or a business, like mom and dad do, you pay tax.
Then I poured a quarter of his juice into my cup. He wasn't too pleased. Then I doubled the pour and the look on his face was priceless when he realized how much I "taxed" his juice and what was left for him to drink. To his relief, I then pretended to be Robin Hood and returned his juice, and we both agreed that the hooded man in tights was a pretty good guy after all.
Great life lesson for your son! As a side note, my mother taught me sight reading before I ever attended school. We lived in a small town without a kindergarten, so when I went into 1st grade I was already reading. We did not have a library, but we did have a county library bookmobile that came by once a week and my mother would take me with her to select books to read along with MasterView slides to see and discuss. My mother introduced me to history and in particular cowboys, indians and mountain men to begin with. I later became an inveterate reader of American biographies and history.
ReplyDeleteMy father, brother, and step-daughter all had learning disabilities and, except for my father, hate to read. It is my belief that in order to be successful in any area of life, you need to be able to read well and develop sharp critical thinking skills. I don't want to push too hard, but constantly introducing literature to him will help meet this goal. I just don't want him to struggle in school like my step-daughter did. Also, I don't want to leave it up to the school system to teach and define critical terms for my son. Parents need to be present and active in the educational process.
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