America

In classrooms all across The United States school children and their teachers stand facing the American Flag every morning to recite The Pledge of Alligiance. In our school this is said in both American Sign Language and English. In other schools those young children with their right hands over their hearts may be speaking Spanish. Although the language differs, there is something we have in common. We are all Americans.

The words sometimes get jumbled. I have heard "one nature under God, invisible, with Liberty and Justice that's all" and many times the young ones like to throw in an "Amen" at the end. Yet, in spite of the less than perfect delivery the essence of the words somehow shines through. When Lauren and I take our students on class trips and they notice a flag waving outside a building they turn to us with excitement and exclaim "Look! America!" as they recite (over and over) the pledge.

They are proud of America. Proud to be Americans.

In our classroom we try to support this citizenship by teaching respect. Together we develop a set of classroom rules that serve as reminders in achieving this goal. Rules like...



And my personal favorite

It is sometimes a struggle to keep things operating smoothly but all in all I think we succeed. After all, these are five-and-six-year-olds.

It has struck me over the last month or so that given the performance of John McCain during the presidential debates, at rallies, on the news and in his campaign ads, I think he would have a difficult time managing in first grade, let alone the White House.

Do we honestly want someone who has yet to learn how to take turns or show respect for others running our country? Throw that in with taking away my medical benefits, cutting Medicare, stripping away the right of a woman to choose, the lying, the promoting of hate and horrendous judgement in picking the unethical and down right scary Sarah Palin as his running mate and you have one colossal disaster waiting to happen.

I would advise these two to step back to first grade before they venture out into the world where they will just get themselves, and us, into trouble.