Thursday, March 16, 2006

Nibbling at History

Today Ethan came up to me with his bow and some suction-cup arrows in his hands and asked, "Dad, who is the guy on the dollar bill that killed a lot of Indians?"

I said, "Andrew Jackson."

Ethan turned to his little sister and said, "You're Andrew Jackson. You're trying to kill me."

Ethan has already learned of presidents in school: George Washington was first and stars in a myth about a cherry tree and Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves. We were at Costco trying to buy some pizza when I got a twenty out of an ATM. Ethan saw it and asked if it was George Washington on the bill. I told him who it was and the most notable thing about Jackson's presidency. It's a simplification but it will have to do until Ethan is old enough to understand the Trail of Tears.

Saying that Jackson is an Indian Killer is more accurate than the older boys I overheard in Target proposing a game: "You be Adolf Hitler and I will be George W. Bush."

Boys will be boys.

3 comments:

Native Minnow said...

Interesting comparison. Those boys in Target might be onto something :-)

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Native Minnow said...

By the way, I love that Ethan already knows that much about U.S. history. That whole 'Andrew Jackson game' they were playing cracks me up.