Tina Howa: Zapatista Corn and teaching 8 and 9 year olds

[Pedrocafe]

Hi,
I am a parent in a 3rd grade class in Sebastopol (Sonoma County) California. We received some of your zapatista corn from a woman named Pero (I believe) given to a parent named Tess Pohlman in our class. Our class planted your corn as a class project last May, and are going to harvest in about a week. We will dry the corn and save seed, and grind the corn to make tortillas in the spring. We are very excited about this project. We just found out about this web site. We would like to educate our 3rd graders about your community and the struggle going on.
Question: Do you have any teaching materials, slide shows, suggestions etc. for educating our 8 and 9 year old children. Any help or direction you could provide would be appreciated,
Best,
Tina Howa

[Pedrocafe]

Hi Tina,

What an exciting thing!  I'm so glad to hear that your corn grew and that you are going to use it to teach the kids.

We don't really have anything already prepared, but let's work on it together.  We can even put the discussion on our forums so that others can use the information.  I will copy your letter there and then try to work with you on developing new ideas.

One place to start might be the book "The Story of Colors" by Subcommander Marcos which is published by Cinco Puntos press and available on Amazon.  I've used that text quite successfully with 8 and 9 year olds.  (In another life I am a primary school teacher)

Yours for kids,

Peter Brown, Coordinator
Schools for Chiapas