The U.S. Election and 4th Graders in Korea

Who voted for this clown?  Doh!

So, this week was a big'un.  The US had it's presidential election and, turns out, Obama won his second term.  Now, I'm not huge into politics (even though I wish I was), but I feel more comfortable with this guy than Romney.  I just agree with his stance more than the other guy on most issues.  If nothing else, he brings with him an understanding of a middle class existence, one where nothing just gets handed to you, and one where white privilege doesn't play a part in your success.  More than that he is giving a voice to populations that have gone unheard for far too long.  Truly, before we vilify presidents, Democratic or Republican, don't we need to take a look at the broken system they're trying to function in?  I mean....seriously.  Ok, ok...but it's not about me or my teacher/middle-class/immigrant-supporting soap-box.  It's about fourth graders in Korea.

Yesterday, we did a brief overview of the US election process, watched some clips of the campaigns and Obama's victory speech and then did some journaling.  Here's a few of the things that made me smile.

"Obama was the best choice for president because if Romney won, he was going to shut down PBS."  Nearly 1/4 of my students mentioned this.  I did not ever talk about this in class.

"I learned that if you want to run for president, you need to have a lot of money, you need to be over 35 years old, and you need a really good speech."

"The process of becoming elected president is extremely complicated and costs a mountain of money."

"I'm glad Obama got elected.  He seems really nice."

"It's good President Obama won.  The other guy was going to get rid of Elmo."

Yeah, that's pretty much it in a nutshell.