Last week I grappled with the realization that I had accidentally taught my Kindergarten students the sanitized history of George Washington. (We all know this story — emphasis on heroics, completely leaving out the brutal plantation where he held other humans in bondage.) Is accidentally the right word? Accidents happen outside of your control, like when a tree falls on your house or another car rear-ends you. This was more preventable, a mistake or error on my part. The damage was done. Regardless of my intentions, the seed had been planted. My students now knew the same whitewashed story of George Washington that I was fed when I was their age. How to attempt to repair it?
I started Googling to try to learn more. Oh look, a list of all the presidents who enslaved people (18!). Bonus: A list of those who brought enslaved people to serve them in White House (9). Double bonus: That White House? Built by enslaved people. Washington himself was the one who ordered it built, opting for slave labor because foreign labor was too expensive.
The Washington Family by Edward Savage. Washington enslaved hundreds of Black people on his plantation at Mount Vernon. Image: Public domain.
OK, so I knew that Washington enslaved people. (Side note: It takes a conscious effort every time to update my lexicon from “owned slaves” to “enslaved people.” I am committed to whatever linguistic gymnastics may be required to honor the agency of oppressed peoples and correct the harmful vocabulary that I harbor in my brain. But I hope that by pointing this out, and by acknowledging it’s not easy, I can help others to do the same.) Anyway, I knew that Washington was an enslaver. But good old Honest Abe Lincoln, he’s someone I figured I could unproblematically revere and honor, right? After all, he fought the Confederacy, issued the Emancipation Proclamation, and represented the free state of Illinois. However, my Googling revealed that Lincoln isn’t off the hook either. He espoused some fairly white supremacist views. Did I know that? If so, I had forgotten, or failed to tape over the freedom-loving story that was laid down first in my mind.
All of this nuance was one thing. But I gasped aloud when I came across the picture of George Washington’s dentures. They were featured in the Kindergarten “fun fact” last week, and I always thought they were wooden. They are no longer a “fun fact” for me. It turns out they actually contained human teeth almost certainly “purchased” from people whom he enslaved. Until last year, the Mount Vernon gift shop even sold a magnet of them. And of course, George didn’t hire people to brush his horse’s teeth (as I told the Kindergarteners) — that would have been done by enslaved people, too.
One of the things that rankles me the most about primary grades education is the false belief that young kids aren’t ready for certain ideas, either emotionally or cognitively. There’s a notion that we are just exposing them to concepts now and laying the foundation for the learning they will do later. What happens when later never comes, because everyone keeps pushing it down the road? What happens when later, they’re confused and have to unlearn the lies? And really, what concept doesn’t have its foundations in kindergarten?
I spent a lot of time thinking about what to say to the Kindergarteners to try to right the wrong I’d done. I gave them a one-sided view of George Washington, great hero, but didn’t mention the Black people he enslaved. I considered revisiting his dentures and carefully telling where the teeth were from. But I decided that photo was too disturbing to throw at five-year-olds. Instead, I chose the angle of the presidents’ homes, aided by the appearance in the curriculum of another complex president: Thomas Jefferson.
Thomas Jefferson's home, Monticello, is featured on the back of the nickel. It is a UNESCO World Heritage site and it was built by enslaved people. Image: Michael Hicks under CC BY 2.0.
This week’s Kindergarten math lessons are about U.S. coins. Students colored in pictures of each coin. Each coin got a page, in increasing order of value. First was Abraham Lincoln on the penny. I reminded them that he helped make enslaved people free. Next was a new face, on the nickel. “This person is Thomas Jefferson. He was also a president, and he lived in Virginia and was friends with George Washington. On the back of the nickel is his house.” I showed them full-color images of Monticello and explained, “Unlike Lincoln with his log cabins, Jefferson didn’t build his own house. Instead, he forced people to build his house. He made enslaved people do it. They didn’t have a choice and he didn’t pay them. He was an important president because he helped start the United States, but his house makes me sad. And George Washington did the same thing.”
"Slave manacles used at Monticello - Smithsonian Museum of American History." By Tim Evanson under CC BY-SA 2.0.
Perhaps it wasn’t a natural connection to link this math lesson on coins with slavery, but telling the truth is more important than being natural. I offer this story as an example of the real way I tried to patch together a repair job on my half-told story of last week. I don’t feel it’s the most meaningful way to have done so. Due to circumstances outside my control, I am filling in for a Kindergarten teacher for a few weeks, not planning my own lessons nor selecting my own materials. But one of my life mottos is “don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good” (Voltaire). This week I did my best to at least take a step in the right direction.
Ideally, were I to find myself with the opportunity to teach about President’s Day in Kindergarten again, I would plan (or find) a lesson sequence designed from an anti-racist perspective from the outset. I would identify appropriate resources and utilize discussion routines to promote critical thinking and questioning. In Kindergarten, that would almost certainly include carefully chosen images to analyze as primary sources. And it would involve centering the stories of some of the Black people who were enslaved by the presidents.
Were I to teach about Washington again, I would include the story of Ona “Oney” Judge. Born into slavery at Mount Vernon, she liberated herself and lived the rest of her life free in New Hampshire. (In my default lexicon, I would have said “escaped slavery,” but liberation is a more active word. Not my word; I am learning.) Philadelphia declared an Oney Judge Freedom Day back in 2010. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we made that a permanent holiday? There are also children’s books about Oney Judge. I believe we should be reading those to children alongside the biographies of Washington. I plan to read more about her, until Oney Judge’s story is engraved in my memory, easily recalled next time I see George Washington beatified.
"Standing her ground: Dhakeria as Silla, a slave at Mount Vernon, at the slave cabin." Credit: Emily Hummel under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
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