Social Studies, in the old days.

Students are preparing for the schools' Model U.N. assembly, to be held soon. All 8th graders are required to participate, as part of their social studies class. High schoolers volunteer because they are interested, and it is fun... and the better ones get to go to Delhi in the fall, for an all-India Model U.N. assembly, possibly another one overseas as well.

JT: A very nice ninth-grader approached me and asked "Is Cuba a communist country?"
I was taken aback, and asked him to repeat the question (I hope I didn't look too incredulous). I answered "Yes, for about 40 years. It is the only communist country in the western hemisphere."
He responded, "So, the U.S. is not friendly to it?"
I said "oh no."
I was ready to launch into a lengthy disquisition on the 1959 revolution and the 1961 Bay of Pigs, and the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, and the Fidel Castro regime, and the recent seesaw of U.S. foreign policy, and the role of rich (and voting) Cuban refugees in the formation of that policy... but no, he only had a couple of questions.