The Pricipal of the United States of America

Perhaps I just don’t remember being a child, or perhaps by working in special education my perspective has been skewed, but I’m pretty sure kids aren’t as smart as they use to be. This concerns me due to the fact that my future offspring is destined to be a genius (or at least a smarty pants), and I want him/her to have other little prodigies to play abacus with.

This was brought to the forefront of my mind the other day when one of the more intelligent students I work with asked me a question. Now, we’ve all had beat into our heads the cliché, “There are no stupid questions…” Okay, so maybe there are no stupid questions, but there apparently are questions that will force me to try desperately not to laugh out loud in a first grader’s face. As little Joe (names have been changed to protect the innocent) colored his zoo animals, he looks up at me and in all seriousness asked, “Who is the principal?” I answered matter of factly, “Mrs. Jones in the principal of our school.” With an inquisitive look he answered back, “No, not of our school, of everything…of this country?” Curious, and a little confused, I questioned, “Do you mean of the United States?”
“Yes! Who is the principal of the United States?
“Well…The president of the United States is George Bush.”
“No!” Joe retorted frustratedly, “Who is the PRINCIPAL of the United States? You know, the boss of everyone?”

Then it clicked in my head that to this wee first grader, the most powerful authority figure he could possibly imagine was a principal! The vision of George Bush eating turkey gravy from a tray with a little carton of 2% milk, giving terrorists time outs, and sliding into a wading pool of pudding when the country read 100 books forced me to gag on my laugh. But wait…this could work…instead of taxes, we could sell Mexico and Canada overpriced wrapping paper and peanut brittle! But I digress.

No matter how I worded it, the concept of president versus principal was just over little Joe’s head, as was the concept that the president is not exactly the “boss of everyone”. So, he left that session a little frustrated, and I left it a little disheartened at the educational system of which I’m a part. Oh well. I’m pretty sure that with my husband in our home, our little peanut will have an abnormal knowledge of America’s political system and a propensity for debate. And, I’m sure peanut can find some other juniors with whom to play TV watching, but that’s a later blog.