Freedom On The Menu Essay

I chose the book Freedom on the Menu: The Greensboro Sit-Ins by Carole Boston Weatherford, illustrated by Jerome Lagarrigue. I chose this book because it has a personal, kid-friendly interpretation of an important historical event, and it offers an important lesson on empathy and privilege. I chose to model my lesson plan after the “Upon the Clouds of Equality” lesson plan for Doreen Rappaport’s book Martin’s Big Words. I felt this lesson plan worked as a model for my book because it has really detailed instructions for the activity. It provides guided discussion questions, which is something I wanted for my lesson plan. I also appreciated the inclusion of the “assessment” section, which encourages the educator to observe the children as they

Clark’s “How Children Learn About Race” discusses how research over the past thirty years shows that “children learn social, racial, and religious prejudices in the course of observing, and being influenced by, the existence of patterns in the culture in which they live” (74). In Freedom on the Menu, Connie’s point of view exemplifies this research. As I mentioned earlier, Connie is very observant. She knows she cannot sit at the lunch counter like the other white children, and she knows she and her family have to follow the signs that dictate where she can drink from a water fountain, go swimming, use the bathroom, or go to the movies. All of these things influence how Connie identifies herself. Her acknowledgment of these things indicates that she knows society sees her as different from the white children and she wonders why she that is when a white girl may have the same purse as she does or when the water from the “white’s only” fountain tastes the same as the “colored water.” But Connie is very lucky that her family is extremely involved in the movement and they teach her that everyone is equal no matter their skin color. Kenneth B. Clark’s discussion of the research about children’s identity inspired me the most to include the freedom menu activity. In this activity, the children are encouraged to recognize what privileges they have. They can use Freedom on the Menu as a comparison to what privilege is like today versus what it was like