6/9/10: Today I received a real education about the way people lived/live in New York City. As we walked along the lower east side I got a real sense of how life is for some people. Apartments were crowded together, traffic was congested and there was very little, if any, parking available (I guess that would stand to reason since many NY’ers don’t own cars). Walking through Chinatown I was surprised at how small and cramped things were–from the houses/apartments to the shops, and I was also surprised to find how animated the people were–meaning, very lively. Merchants were chatting back and forth at each other and just about on every block you could hear some kind of conversation going on between a shop owner and a customer. Some people seemed (obviously) very familiar with the neighborhood; you got a real sense of their belonging to that area.
The tenement museum and tenement house that we visited was quite incredible to view. I’ve taught about these tenement houses in my social studies classes for the last three years, but having seen one now, I am sure I’ll take a different attitude when I teach it the next time. For one thing, I will have a different kind of respect for those who lived there, knowing that the rooms are so small and how many people sometimes slept there. When we learned of the Lavine family that had six children, I was really shocked to find out that the four boys slept with their heads on the sofa and their bodies laying across a dining room chair. We would never think of people living that way TODAY, although I wouldn’t doubt that some still do. Since I’ve viewed a tenement house in person now, I think I can pass along to the students the feeling of the crowded conditions, lack of beds, etc., and make them having a truer appreciation of how immigrants lived (and the fact that they were thankful to live like that because they were in AMERICA!).
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