Random: I don't understand why pirates are so widely accepted as a children appropriate theme.
I mean people know what pirates are right?
Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence at sea. The term can include acts committed on land, in the air, or in other major bodies of water or on a shore.... ... piracy is again on the rise with many yachts being plundered and their crews often tortured, raped or slain.
How on earth is this something we use as fun and child appropriate?? I'm doing a nautical theme for my classroom and I have been very careful to stay away from pirates, planks, skull and cross bones, gold, etc for this reasons. No treasure maps, no X marks the spot, no peg legs.
We don't have Nazi themed classrooms, 1690s Salem themes, African slave trade themes, grand theft auto themes. Why do we have pirate themes? Maybe I'm being too uptight, but I don't see why we have glamorized these awful values and immoral behaviors. It's one thing if pirates were used as examples of what NOT to do, you know, the way teachers have a 1690s Salem unit and use it to point out the shortcomings in our nations history... but we celebrate piracy.
Those are NOT values I want my students to embody...
Blows my mind.
I'm sure some of you are thinking, "Chill out." "It's harmless."
And, perhaps it is. The problem isn't classroom themes, it's the culture of piracy being cool. Halloween costumes, birthday parties... Students will probably be really excited to have a pirate themed classroom because it's completely acceptable.
But then again, there are a lot of 'completely acceptable' things that I don't quite align with. :)
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