A Picturesque Life

My six and seven year old students never fail to amuse me. I thought you might enjoy some of the tidbits from my classroom…

We recently did a unit on our state, Mississippi. I always think it sad when kids don’t know information about where they live. And it’s common at this age to confuse country, county, state, city, etc.

So, I was trying to see what my students already knew. I was pretty impressed that I had a one kid who knew Haley Barbour was our governor. He also knew George W. Bush was our president (He even took pictures with him after the hurricane and brought them for show and tell.) Still, I really didn’t expect anyone to know our mayor’s name was Brent Warr. I just expected silence after that question….Heck I had to look that one up. Shameful, I know.

“Does anyone know the mayor of Gulfport?”

“I do! I do!” says the same kid who knew the president’s name and the governor’s name. This boy is pretty bright, and since he knew the other questions I assumed he had really politically minded parents who deemed it worthy to keep him up to date on politicians. It could happen. I saw a girl like that on Primetime Live or something like that while at a restaurant once. Maybe this little boy was like that…

“Okay, J. Who is it?”

“Oh. I know this. I know this. I saw it on the news. It’s…it’s … George Clooney!”

Uh. No.

The problem now is that obviously George Clooney seems to be a more memorable name than Brent Warr. Every time I ask this question, a whole two weeks later, some kid manages to remember that George Clooney is our mayor…er, except that he isn’t.

And more on Mississippi …

I asked my students if any of them knew the capital of Mississippi. Many excitedly waved their hands around, so pleased they knew the answer…M! The capital of Mississippi is M!!

Oy!!

Fun stuff!