At first I thought my fourth grader was asking how it was possible that I experienced sight with my blue eyes. After questioning, my adorable little Hispanic friend explained:
"What do you see with blue eyes? Like... what color is this?"
I managed to keep a straight face while explaining that the colors of our eyes do not change the way we see the world- everyone sees the same things.
"So this is purple? And this is white? Wow... I didn't know it was the same."
We went on to talk about all kinds of physical differences between peoples of different ethnicity and background, but on the way home I had a chance to process this interaction.
1. My student has been so underexposed to Caucasians (living and going to school in a neighborhood surrounded by minorities) that he literally has never had the chance to have this conversation with a blue-eyed person. I can't decide if this is necessarily a bad thing.
2. How wonderful it is that this little boy still has curiosity and wonder and questions about the world. By the time you get to fourth grade in this city innocence is usually destroyed. It's quite refreshing.
i LOVE this post. i will be sharing it with everyone i know. :)
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