January 7, 2010
The End of the Underground Railroad This picture depicts something that I didn’t really understand when I was a child.  See, children are very literal.  Adults talk to children about the underground railroad and children imagine a railroad which runs underground.  I remember thinking, ‘That sure is a complicated way to free the slaves.  Seems like people would get suspicious during all the time it would take to build that.’ Another very concrete image that I had concerns the governor on a school bus.  I once asked my mom how they kept the bus from going too fast, and she told me that each bus had a governor on it.  Since what I knew of a governor was a man who lived in the state capital and did something with government, I thought there was a physical person on each bus that enforced the speed limit. Moral of the story?  You never know what your kids (or other people’s kids) are getting out of what you think is a very clear explanation.

The End of the Underground Railroad

This picture depicts something that I didn’t really understand when I was a child.  See, children are very literal.  Adults talk to children about the underground railroad and children imagine a railroad which runs underground.  I remember thinking, ‘That sure is a complicated way to free the slaves.  Seems like people would get suspicious during all the time it would take to build that.’

Another very concrete image that I had concerns the governor on a school bus.  I once asked my mom how they kept the bus from going too fast, and she told me that each bus had a governor on it.  Since what I knew of a governor was a man who lived in the state capital and did something with government, I thought there was a physical person on each bus that enforced the speed limit.

Moral of the story?  You never know what your kids (or other people’s kids) are getting out of what you think is a very clear explanation.

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