School Bells – Current Affairs – Grade 1 – Week 12
If you were a presidential candidate
I am excited to meet with the first grade students today. Their assignment for this week was: “For next week since it is getting close to the presidential election each of you make up the perfect presidential candidate, pretend to be that person and talk about a problem you would try to fix if you were president.” I had sent home this suggestion as well as all the ways the students suggested dealing with the bully since there seems to have been a lot of bullying going on among the candidates for various offices this year I thought it was a good idea to connect the two.
Here come the students now.
Me: Good morning class.
Class: Good morning Mr. Jim!
Me: Oh me! Some of you have on adult masks this morning which I assume is because of the assignment. That is great. I am so excited to hear all of the presidential candidates.
Class: Cookies! Cookies!
Me: That does not sound very presidential!! I am sorry Mr. and Ms. Potential Presidents but I did not bring snacks to carry you through your busy schedule. I guess I was not thinking very clearly. I will bring cookies next week.
Class: (Collective sigh!)
Me: Well, I think, unless someone has a more pressing social issue to discuss we need to get started. Who wants to start by introducing themselves and talking about a problem they will attempt to fix if they are elected president? Any other pressing concerns?
(No one says anything or raises their hands.)
Me: Okay then. Who wants to go first? Great! Tara come up to the front Ms. Potential President. Please introduce yourself.
Tara: I am Mrs. Smithers. I am your best choice for president. If you elect me I will make sure every first grader has an iPad and internet service at home. At our house everyone has an iPad for homework and to play family games on. A lot of kids I know don’t even have a computer at home. If everyone does better in school everyone will get a good job and no one will be angry.
Me: That is impressive Mrs. Smithers. Does anyone have any questions for Mrs. Smithers?
Ahmes: Mrs. Smithers (giggle) won’t everyone use them just to play games on or to watch movies?
Ms. Smithers: In our home children are not allowed to take their iPad to their rooms. The parents can also find out what the children have been doing with them. The iPad is like a big sister or brother who tells on you. It tells parents all the places you visited.
Sue: Ms. Smithers what sort of family games? Violent ones?
Ms. Smithers: Violent games are not allowed in our family. We play games where we have to find out certain information and the person who finds it first or finds something no one else found wins.
Me: Thank you Ms. Smithers. I wish we had more time but we want to give all the candidates who are prepared to speak a chance. Let’s give Ms. Smithers a round of applause for her concern about education.
Class claps.
Me: What is next? Steve I see your hand. Come on up.
Steve: I am Stephen Tucker. I am running for president because I think that we need more trains. My grandparents said there used to be a lot more trains and trolleys. All those cars keep people from getting where they need to go. My mom says that even driverless cars are still cars and will still keep traffic bad. When I visit my uncle in New York, we never drive. We take the subway or the bus.
Sam: Mr. Tucker what if you need to run to the grocery store. You cannot wait on a train to get a gallon of milk.
Mr. Tucker: I thought about that. More places are delivering groceries and my grandma says that in the old days - She talks a lot about the old days. (class sighs) – if you ran out of milk you just waited until the next day.
Sofia: My uncle has his own cows. Could everyone have a cow?
Mr. Tucker: I am sorry but you cannot have a cow in an apartment. They do the bathroom thing anywhere. That would not be good.
Sue: What about people like me Mr. Tucker?
Mr. Tucker: My aunt is in a wheelchair and there is a van which will pick her up and take her places.
Me: Mr. Tucker you seem to have given a lot of thought to this idea. Class, please give a round of applause to Mr. Tucker.
Thank you Mr. Tucker. Who wants to go next? Sue, come on up.
Sue: I am Susan Carnes and I am running for president because I am tired of the bullies. It seems as if lots of the adults who are running countries or trying to get elected try to scare everyone. They are just bullies. If I were president, I would make all the bullies go into a room and not come up until they learned to play nice. That is what happens when my siblings and I are not being nice to each other. At first we are still mean to each other but then we know we better start pretending to be nice if we want to ever get out of that room. Soon we forget that we are pretending and we really are nice to each other.
Susie: Ms. Carnes. We already have a lot of bullies in jail and there are just more bullies. On TV when they go into the jail room they do not play nice.
Ms. Carnes: It does not seem as if jails are nice places. Even the guards do not play nice in jails. My plan is not jails but small groups of people. At home if we cannot learn to play nice by ourselves one of our parents comes in to help us. Maybe those bullies did not have a good mommy and daddy.
Me: Thank you Ms. Carnes. Let’s applaud Ms. Carnes for her passion for making bullies learn how to play nice. We only have time for one more candidate. Who want to present their plan? Sam? Great. Come on up.
Sam: I am Ms. Sam Jones. I think all of the candidates have very good ideas. If you elect me as president, I am going to invite all the candidates to work as a team with me. When I was growing up in my family we decided together what problems or chores we would spend time on. We had to all agree. It was called consen . Consen…
Me: Excuse me Ms. Jones. I think that the word you want is consensus.
Ms. Jones: Thank you. That is when we have to keep talking until everyone in the family agrees. If it is a bad decision, there is no one to blame.
Ahmes: Ms. Jones I do not understand how that works. We could spend all day deciding what to eat for dinner.
Mrs. Jones: Some decisions are assigned to certain people in the family. In our family what to eat is determined by the two-person team responsible for dinner that night.
Me: This is a subject which we could spend a lot of time talking about. There are groups of people such as Quakers who make all big decisions this way. Everyone has to agree or they do not do anything.
I am again so impressed with everyone. We have time for one more. I would like Ahmes to have a chance to present her proposals.
Ahmes: I am Ahmes Khouri. I am running for president because I think that we need to quit using words like immigrant, Muslim and foreigner to determine who we are or how we want to treat someone. People think they know my family and me just because of where we are from or because we came to this country or because we are Muslim. My family knows that there has to be ways to say who is citizen but we work hard and are good neighbors. It is true that we are Egyptian, Muslim and immigrants but I do not think you know us if you just know those things.
Sam: Ms. Khouri why did you come to this country?
Ms. Khouri: My mother does medical research and the university wanted her to help them. My siblings and I like going to school here also.
Me: Thank you Ms. Khouri. I am sorry we have run out of time. Let’s give Ms. Khouri a round of applause for reminding us that we are more than a religion, a country, or a status such as immigrant. Those words do not tell us who we are.
I wish we had a lot more time. I am convinced that some of you have been more thoughtful about what it means to be president then some of those who are running.
Next week the election will be over. How about we talk about how we make up after an argument and saying mean things to each other. When some people run for office they say mean things about each other and then have to learn to work together. I love it that none of our candidates today said anything about anyone. Here are the slips with the assignment. Everyone pick up one from me as you are leaving.
Have a good week.
Ring! Ring! Ring!
Written November 2, 2016
If you were a presidential candidate
I am excited to meet with the first grade students today. Their assignment for this week was: “For next week since it is getting close to the presidential election each of you make up the perfect presidential candidate, pretend to be that person and talk about a problem you would try to fix if you were president.” I had sent home this suggestion as well as all the ways the students suggested dealing with the bully since there seems to have been a lot of bullying going on among the candidates for various offices this year I thought it was a good idea to connect the two.
Here come the students now.
Me: Good morning class.
Class: Good morning Mr. Jim!
Me: Oh me! Some of you have on adult masks this morning which I assume is because of the assignment. That is great. I am so excited to hear all of the presidential candidates.
Class: Cookies! Cookies!
Me: That does not sound very presidential!! I am sorry Mr. and Ms. Potential Presidents but I did not bring snacks to carry you through your busy schedule. I guess I was not thinking very clearly. I will bring cookies next week.
Class: (Collective sigh!)
Me: Well, I think, unless someone has a more pressing social issue to discuss we need to get started. Who wants to start by introducing themselves and talking about a problem they will attempt to fix if they are elected president? Any other pressing concerns?
(No one says anything or raises their hands.)
Me: Okay then. Who wants to go first? Great! Tara come up to the front Ms. Potential President. Please introduce yourself.
Tara: I am Mrs. Smithers. I am your best choice for president. If you elect me I will make sure every first grader has an iPad and internet service at home. At our house everyone has an iPad for homework and to play family games on. A lot of kids I know don’t even have a computer at home. If everyone does better in school everyone will get a good job and no one will be angry.
Me: That is impressive Mrs. Smithers. Does anyone have any questions for Mrs. Smithers?
Ahmes: Mrs. Smithers (giggle) won’t everyone use them just to play games on or to watch movies?
Ms. Smithers: In our home children are not allowed to take their iPad to their rooms. The parents can also find out what the children have been doing with them. The iPad is like a big sister or brother who tells on you. It tells parents all the places you visited.
Sue: Ms. Smithers what sort of family games? Violent ones?
Ms. Smithers: Violent games are not allowed in our family. We play games where we have to find out certain information and the person who finds it first or finds something no one else found wins.
Me: Thank you Ms. Smithers. I wish we had more time but we want to give all the candidates who are prepared to speak a chance. Let’s give Ms. Smithers a round of applause for her concern about education.
Class claps.
Me: What is next? Steve I see your hand. Come on up.
Steve: I am Stephen Tucker. I am running for president because I think that we need more trains. My grandparents said there used to be a lot more trains and trolleys. All those cars keep people from getting where they need to go. My mom says that even driverless cars are still cars and will still keep traffic bad. When I visit my uncle in New York, we never drive. We take the subway or the bus.
Sam: Mr. Tucker what if you need to run to the grocery store. You cannot wait on a train to get a gallon of milk.
Mr. Tucker: I thought about that. More places are delivering groceries and my grandma says that in the old days - She talks a lot about the old days. (class sighs) – if you ran out of milk you just waited until the next day.
Sofia: My uncle has his own cows. Could everyone have a cow?
Mr. Tucker: I am sorry but you cannot have a cow in an apartment. They do the bathroom thing anywhere. That would not be good.
Sue: What about people like me Mr. Tucker?
Mr. Tucker: My aunt is in a wheelchair and there is a van which will pick her up and take her places.
Me: Mr. Tucker you seem to have given a lot of thought to this idea. Class, please give a round of applause to Mr. Tucker.
Thank you Mr. Tucker. Who wants to go next? Sue, come on up.
Sue: I am Susan Carnes and I am running for president because I am tired of the bullies. It seems as if lots of the adults who are running countries or trying to get elected try to scare everyone. They are just bullies. If I were president, I would make all the bullies go into a room and not come up until they learned to play nice. That is what happens when my siblings and I are not being nice to each other. At first we are still mean to each other but then we know we better start pretending to be nice if we want to ever get out of that room. Soon we forget that we are pretending and we really are nice to each other.
Susie: Ms. Carnes. We already have a lot of bullies in jail and there are just more bullies. On TV when they go into the jail room they do not play nice.
Ms. Carnes: It does not seem as if jails are nice places. Even the guards do not play nice in jails. My plan is not jails but small groups of people. At home if we cannot learn to play nice by ourselves one of our parents comes in to help us. Maybe those bullies did not have a good mommy and daddy.
Me: Thank you Ms. Carnes. Let’s applaud Ms. Carnes for her passion for making bullies learn how to play nice. We only have time for one more candidate. Who want to present their plan? Sam? Great. Come on up.
Sam: I am Ms. Sam Jones. I think all of the candidates have very good ideas. If you elect me as president, I am going to invite all the candidates to work as a team with me. When I was growing up in my family we decided together what problems or chores we would spend time on. We had to all agree. It was called consen . Consen…
Me: Excuse me Ms. Jones. I think that the word you want is consensus.
Ms. Jones: Thank you. That is when we have to keep talking until everyone in the family agrees. If it is a bad decision, there is no one to blame.
Ahmes: Ms. Jones I do not understand how that works. We could spend all day deciding what to eat for dinner.
Mrs. Jones: Some decisions are assigned to certain people in the family. In our family what to eat is determined by the two-person team responsible for dinner that night.
Me: This is a subject which we could spend a lot of time talking about. There are groups of people such as Quakers who make all big decisions this way. Everyone has to agree or they do not do anything.
I am again so impressed with everyone. We have time for one more. I would like Ahmes to have a chance to present her proposals.
Ahmes: I am Ahmes Khouri. I am running for president because I think that we need to quit using words like immigrant, Muslim and foreigner to determine who we are or how we want to treat someone. People think they know my family and me just because of where we are from or because we came to this country or because we are Muslim. My family knows that there has to be ways to say who is citizen but we work hard and are good neighbors. It is true that we are Egyptian, Muslim and immigrants but I do not think you know us if you just know those things.
Sam: Ms. Khouri why did you come to this country?
Ms. Khouri: My mother does medical research and the university wanted her to help them. My siblings and I like going to school here also.
Me: Thank you Ms. Khouri. I am sorry we have run out of time. Let’s give Ms. Khouri a round of applause for reminding us that we are more than a religion, a country, or a status such as immigrant. Those words do not tell us who we are.
I wish we had a lot more time. I am convinced that some of you have been more thoughtful about what it means to be president then some of those who are running.
Next week the election will be over. How about we talk about how we make up after an argument and saying mean things to each other. When some people run for office they say mean things about each other and then have to learn to work together. I love it that none of our candidates today said anything about anyone. Here are the slips with the assignment. Everyone pick up one from me as you are leaving.
Have a good week.
Ring! Ring! Ring!
Written November 2, 2016
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