On Friday in 8th grade, the issue of marriage in the Middle Ages came up. The great Christian king Charlemagne had 5 wives and at least 5 known mistresses, so the point I wanted students to understand was that the institution of marriage was different then. They seemed to get it, all nodding as we talked.
Then in the 3-second pause that followed, a very shy student raised her hand. "Why do you always hear of a man having 5 wives and never of a woman having 5 husbands?"
Snickers from the class. So I turned it back on them. "What do you guys think?"
After one or two comments, they were able to come up with the fact that men inherited the money, so they were the ones providing for the wives, not the other way around. Then here's where I went wrong. I said, "Yes, that's a very big part of it."
Another 3-second pause. The same first girl raised her hand. "Well, ... what's the other part of it?"
I could feel everyone's eyes on me, and I'm pretty sure I began to blush. The room got hot, and I cleared my throat. "Well, ... the other part has to do with ... making babies."
More snickers and a couple of raised eyebrows.
I forged ahead. "1 husband and 5 wives means that this guy could technically be having 5 babies at once. 1 wife with 5 husbands, and she can still only be having 1 baby at a time." An awkward silence followed while some students ran the math, and then there were even more giggles. I opened my mouth to add the issue of not knowing whose baby it even was what with parentage being a high medieval value, but then I closed it again and chose to move on ... to something else. Got to love Middle School.
1 comment:
Haha! Once my friend and I calculated how many children there would be if Methuselah had had as many wives and concubines as Solomon. Mind blowing. Waste of time. Hilarious.
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