Comparing A Bus Ride And The Berlin Wall

When reading A Bus Ride, and The Berlin Wall it is very interesting to read how you can incorporate active learning. Active learning is important, especially on topics that may seem boring to some. A Bus Ride really stood out. It was interesting how something you can do with adults, can still impact children in first grade. I think it is important in a classroom to let children express their feeling about something, rather than being “told” what is right to believe, and what is wrong. In A Bus Ride the little girl amazed me when she said, “I’d rather not talk about it,” and she expressed that it made her angry. At such a young age she knew that it was wrong. Of course she may not completely understand how it truly felt to live through that time, but she knew that what had happened was wrong and she did not like being treated in that manner.
I personally haven’t studied The Berlin Wall, so some of this information was even new to me.
I related more to A Bus Ride, because I’ve studied racism in America for as long as I can remember. What I thought was the most interesting thing in The Berlin Wall was the teacher let the children express their opinion by painting/drawing. Some students may not be very talkative and open about their feelings, and this gave them an opportunity to express their emotion other than in words. The only thing that bothered me about The Berlin Wall was that the kids on the opposite side that had the privileges did not completely understand the meaning. In A Bus Ride the students could still see the emotions on the children who weren’t allowed to sit up front. They couldn’t see the students in The Berlin Wall so it bothered me, that maybe they didn’t understand the true meaning of the
lesson.