Upper Elementary - Social Structures

Lunar New Year is coming up on February 17th and we will celebrate this spring festival with traditional lucky foods next week.  While the Lunar New Year is celebrated around the world, we focused our learning on ancient China.  This brought our attention to social hierarchies.  As might be expected in ancient China, the emperor and royal family were the top of the heap, with wealth and power.  However, just below these dynasties were the civil servants, respected because they could read and write.  Next were the peasants and craftspeople, revered for their contributions to society:  producing, by hand, food for all and goods used by upper classes.  Interestingly, the wealthy merchants followed.  While they had a lot of money, they had lower status and less respect because they did not create their own products, just traded in the goods made by others.  Entertainers, soldiers and servants were at the bottom of the social structure.  While many towards the bottom were destined to remain, there was a path upward.  This was through education, which was open to any male, despite their financial status.  

We are currently reading the novel, “Esperanza Rising” by Pam Muñoz Ryan.  It takes place during the Great Depression and tells the story of an affluent and educated young girl named Esperanza who lives on her family's ranch staffed by servants. After her father’s death and with her mother facing a forced marriage to Esperanza's evil uncle, she and her mother make the difficult choice to leave their home in Mexico.  They become migrant farmers in California.  It is described as a “riches to rags” story.  Part of our classroom conversation was how the societal ladder changed for Esperanza.  In Mexico, she was respected for her wealth.  But in California, with her wealth gone, she needs skills that she never learned, like childcare and cleaning, so that she may contribute to the camp.  She is teased for not having these skills.  

This brought us to our own personal worlds of friends and family.  What do we value?  If we were to create our own hierarchy, who would be at the top?  It wouldn’t be Upper Elementary if someone didn’t say Minecraft skills and a decent Pokémon collection.  Also in alignment with UE kids, and after the silliness, came the beauty of appreciating kindness, inclusion, generosity, empathy and perseverance - all of which the world could value more.  I’m in!