One way to look at teaching is to consider the teacher as the sole employee of a three-ring circus. There is the juggling act – dealing with kids, parents and administrators and satisfying their needs and wants. There is the clown car – pulling humor out of small places so learning is enjoyable. There is also the high-wire act – balancing the needs of the learner with the requirements of the curriculum counterbalanced with the key knowledge that I want my students to gain.

Social studies is one of those subjects that is a high-wire act, and the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving are among the riskiest for falling off that wire. Thanksgiving is a national holiday. My students need to know why we as a nation celebrate Thanksgiving. They also need to know not everyone perceives Thanksgiving as a reason for celebration.

Those of us from Northern European stock often stereotype the settlers who arrived in Massachusetts in 1620 as serious, intense, hard-working folks who used religion as the backbone of their lives. According to the Web site of the Plimoth Plantation, a bicultural museum in Plymouth, Mass., our modern visual image is based on a 1651 painting of Edward Winslow, a passenger on the Mayflower. He was in England at the time and posed for his portrait while dressed in the latest fashions in black and white.

According to the Web site, that group of settlers was a varied bunch. Some were sailors, some were soldiers, and some were farmers. They did not call themselves “Pilgrims,” “Puritans” or even “saints” and “sinners.” Those terms were applied to them many years later. The settlers referred to themselves as “planters.” The financiers, who remained in England, were known as “adventurers.”

When viewed from 2007, those individuals who sailed on the Mayflower were dogmatic, prejudiced and elitist, according to historians. They were also provincial. They perceived the “New World” as an undeveloped paradise ready for commercial exploitation and the Wampanoag people as inferiors who needed civilizing through religion, government and education.

However, in the 17th century, these folks were risk-takers. They didn’t believe the monarchy should rule religious life. They chose to leave their own country, not once, but twice, for the opportunity to create a community where they could govern by common consent and worship the way they saw fit. The conveniences of England in the 1620s were not available to them on this continent. They were hard-working and very brave.

The Wampanoag Indians were a thriving, populous civilization before the arrival of the English colonists. In fact, historians estimate that there were 50,000 Wampanoags living in southeastern Massachusetts and eastern Rhode Island in 1616. They had families, economies, governments and arts. The Wampanoags were aware of European people through other ships traveling with explorers, fishermen or fur traders. The Wampanoag site at Plimoth Plantation states that the native people viewed the English as “strange and aggressive.”

These two groups of people did trade with each other and they also negotiated military treaties, historians say. But they weren’t friends as the legend of Thanksgiving wants us to believe. As groups, they viewed each other with suspicion and caution. However, there were individual English planters and Wampanoags who worked hard at developing a mutual tolerance. The individuals who were able to do this are nameless to us. Based on our present day knowledge of what characteristics are necessary to buck cultural stereotypes and form different opinions based on personal experience, we can make some good guesses about these historical heroes. Most likely they were critical thinkers, problem-solvers, and somewhat radical.

These are complex ideas to present to anyone, much less first- and second-graders. Balancing the content of these lessons is very difficult. It is also extraordinarily important. We need our students to be like the nameless historical heroes of Plimoth Plantation and the Wampanoag tribes who were able to think and act outside of the box.

A few years ago, I had a painfully shy student who had not had a positive kindergarten experience before he came to our school. As a member of the Passamaquoddy Tribe, he was confused and bewildered when that kindergarten teacher (in a school system that will remain nameless) instructed the class to “sit Indian-style” and when he didn’t comply because he didn’t know what that meant, the teacher admonished him, saying, “Sit like you do at home, Doug. You are an Indian. You know how to sit Indian-style.”

Obviously, and with good reason, by the time the parents had moved and met me, they did not have a very high opinion of teachers. I struggled with this by juggling while balancing at the same time. We talked a lot about our family heritages that year. Many students, including Doug, brought in clothing, music, books and decorative objects to present to the class. I have to admit that my favorite was when my shy, reticent Doug disappeared into the bathroom before his turn to present. He emerged in traditional dress with his drum. Due to popular request, he drummed several times for us that year.

Doug learned that his heritage was important and valued. His smile when the class asked him to drum told me that he had learned that lesson. The rest of my class learned that labels like “Native American” and “native people” and Passamaquoddy and Micmac and Penobscot didn’t mean a caricature of a stereotype. They learned that those terms mean a person – a person they can get to know.

Unfortunately, I don’t have a Doug in my classroom every year to keep me balanced while I teach social studies during November. Some years, I’ve been able to skip specifically teaching about the holiday Thanksgiving because of other curriculum requirements. When I do teach about this holiday, I use the materials from Plimoth Plantation, which includes the Wampanoag site staffed by native people. I also strive to teach the skills that my students will need to develop as critical thinkers and creative problem-solvers. This approach helps keep me balanced on the high-wire act in my classroom circus.

Let’s continue the conversation. E-mail me at conversationswithateacher@gmail.com.