And I'm thinking, "Every day, kiddo - every day."
Actually, my small friend has a pretty bad speech impediment, so what he said was more like, "tweacher, woatz de skoal evew a fheothek." At least that's what it sounded like. The other kids had to help me with interpretation - they've known this boy since kindergarten. I've known more than one substitute who has looked blankly at this child and asked for the third, or 4th, or 10th time, "could you repeat that?" And the other kids get frustrated and yell, "for the love of Pete, he's asking you to find him a black crayon."
Anyway, I couldn't answer him honestly because I just did not know. Now, I know that our school sits on property adjacent to, and once a part of a local Veteran's Hospital, which was once part of the property of a military fort - back in the day.
So I decided to appeal to the local fort museum. I wrote an email, never really expecting to find out anything. To my complete surprise, the next day I get an email from one of the museum employees. He gave me the information I was seeking. Turns out that there were no battles between the Native Americans and the US military on the site of our school. But he could not say if maybe in times long past, that Native Americans did not battle Native Americans on our site. He also attached a copy of a drawing of the original fort and another copy of an early plat map of the area.
You know what? Don't be afraid to ask. You just never know what response you will get. And the smile on a child's face, and making them feel like they matter, that their questions are important, that their teacher will go to extra trouble to find out something for them, it makes it all worth it.
Now I just have to find a nice way to tell one of the other students that she might not be related to that wonderful woman guide to Lewis and Clark. That and that she might want to stop referring to her as Aunt Sacajawea.
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