Sparkle Schoolhouse

FIFTY Study Page: Kansas— "The Rivalry"

FIFTY: Kansas — "The Rivalry"

Each story in the FIFTY collection focuses on a remarkable American from a different state. Below are some recommended topics to inspire further investigation of the history and geography of the state, as well as themes that can support our children's growth and development.

In the states of Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri, high school and college football is very important to many families. This is especially the case for the Barafato family - and it is football that not only brings the family together - but later creates the biggest rift. When Tony Barafato joins the Kansas Jayhawks football program and his younger brother Nickie joins the Missouri Tigers team, they learn how deep a football rivalry can go.

This story references a civil war rift between Kansas and Missouri and the violent conflict that forms between “slave states” and “free states.”

Kansas History

• History of the Kansas/Missouri conflict over Kansas becoming a state and its relationship to the Civil War
• History of the Kansas/Missouri football rivalry

Kansas Geography Map of Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri as it relates to the Barafato family

“The Rivalry” Study Topics How sports can be an opportunity and challenge when working through political, social and civil issues (history of rivalries, protests, etc)

Topics for Reflection

From a Child Development Perspective:

In this story, your child might learn about the importance of:

DISHSOAP!

Why dish soap?

Because it is an emulsion.

You need to use dish soap to break down the fats that make our dishes greasy. Oil and water are insoluble. That means that one of them cannot be dissolved into the other. In a way, it’s like saying that they ‘don’t have anything in common.” One substance is ‘water–loving” and the other substance is “water-not-loving”, so they can not get along, and there is a rivalry.

There was also the rivalry between Tony and Nicky, and between the University of Kansas Jayhawks and the University of Missouri Tigers, and the discrepancies in the retelling of history, and Kansas and Missouri during the Civil War. They were all rivals. The ideas they represented could not co-exist. And there was a big discussion, maybe even what we could call a talk-fight, at the Berrafato Thanksgiving table…it was like oil and water. No one could really hear what the other was saying. There was a ‘right’ side and a ‘wrong’ side depending on what side you were on.

Until Stephanie helped everyone to see the other’s perspective, to find a little bit of themselves in a collective experience, to bring compassion and understanding to a conflict. She helped everyone to break their stubborn and fixed ideas into smaller parts so that everyone could find what little parts they had in common. And there were many. But not until there was a listening of the parts instead of a stubborn rejection of the big idea!

She was the emulsion.

Emulsions, in essence, help two substances to unite. They break down the parts of the liquid into teenier tinier parts so they can blend and harmonize in ways that they can’t when they are independent. Oil and water separate, but if you add an emulsion, they can find a common ground and come together. You can wash the grease off the plate because the water and the oil are together instead of remaining separated. Mayonnaise is an emulsion! Hand cream is an emulsion! Sometimes you can emulsify liquids mechanically, and you don’t need chemicals. Churned butter is an example of an emulsion of fat droplets in water.

Either way, when you emulsify, you in a way, listen to each other, make room for each other, and you say, “We can be together side-by-side.” The rivalry is softened and we come to mutuality.