Against The Law

In a kind of weird twist yesterday, Ivan and I began discussing what sort of things were against the law. The afternoon was taken up with all sorts of activities relating to that subject with some surprising results.

Imogen was very good at drawing some scenes of things that are against the law. She drew a figure (man) putting some sweets into his pocket while a security guard was looking the other way near a sweet counter.

Angelica wrote a piece out about things that she thought were against the law. I was delighted to see her writing about the way some people use racist terms like "black ..... " and similar phrases that just seem to roll off the tongue. I asked her why she thought that using names like "black something" were against the law now and she went into this huge description of people making other people feel bad or belittled because of something physical about them or their appearance. This led to a huge debate between all the children about disabilities both physical and not so obvious.

I feel so proud that all of them knew about this subject. I couldnt work out what to put down in my "I can prove we actually educate the children" book to show the local education authority when they make their annual inspection here. This morning I filled it in and will be pleased to show this off.

Later today we will be doing some paintings to reflect our discussion on equality. The children have ideas some of which are surprising. Ivan is drawing black and white hands all jumbled up on the page. Imogen is doing a man with a guide dog jumping on the trampoline as she said "why shouldn't he" when I asked her why she came up with that. Angelica is writing more about why she thinks that some people 'have' to make other people feel bad to make themselves feel good. Lionel is showing pictures of different degrees of physical disability doing sporting events. He has been researching this today. Joseph who has Marfan Syndrome himself knows only too well about feeling bad and sad because of the way people look at him or speak towards him not with him, is doing a piece about equality at work. He has been looking at what facilities employers have to provide and what the law says about equality.

To think all of this came out as a subject to follow because Ivan said that he thought someone nicked a magazine from Tesco's yesterday. They hadnt, the lady had taken a freebie magazine but Ivan not knowing it was free to take was convinced she "nicked it". I am always amazed at my children's ability to just take a line or suggestion and run with it for two or three days. Last night we actually fell asleep discussing equality of various types but we all felt happy and the brains felt like they had achieved a lot.