Wow, they did it again!

I love teaching sixth grade. Well, I usually like teaching sixth grade until after the Winter Break that is. After the Winter Break, hormones switch gears and things get a little weird (from a teacher's point of view). I think it's stupid for the state to schedule a test in the Spring for a sixth grader mainly because testing is the LAST thing they have on their minds.

My teaching partner and I work really hard with the kids in terms of helping them navigate the "rules of society" thing. A lot of times the kids will talk to us like we're one of their friends, and we have to quickly (yet tactfully) point out they just broke a BIG rule of society (if you want to be successful, don't be rude to adults, or in Jr. High if you don't want to get your butt beat don't be rude to an eighth grader).

We're getting ready to take the kids to Enterprise City. It's a little "city" where the kids get to run businesses and practice writing checks, buying items, working for a "salary" and other fun things like that. Two of the jobs in EC are voted positions. They are the Mayor and the Judge. Surprisingly enough, there were only 2 candidates for mayor and 3 candidates for judge. So, the kids knew that they would have to give a speech and the Language Arts teacher did a great job about modeling for the students what their speech needed to include and what kinds of things they could say to help support their points. We scheduled the speeches for this past Friday.

Before the speeches, I sat my kids down and encouraged them to pick the candidate they thought would do the best job. Enterprise City is supposed to be fun, but if you have people that are 'in charge' and goof off it won't be fun because nothing will get done. Usually, the kids vote for their friends and the day gets a little chaotic because the elected officials don't do their jobs.

The first speeches to be given were for the Mayor. The first student gets up and gives some sort of "speech" that really wasn't a speech, he'd just actually thought of what he wanted to say 2 seconds before he got up. He promised a bunch of things that weren't even in his job description, so my teaching partner and I pointed out that he was running for Mayor not Judge. The second candidate got up and pretty much did the same thing. Their speeches were PATHETIC. They went something like this, "If you vote for me for mayor I'll make sure I'm fair. If you get a ticket, I might reduce the fine." Okay? Say what? The mayor pretty much just signs the checks for the city employees and that's it. So then it was the judge candidates turn. The first candidate did the exact same thing and it was obvious. He made up his speech off the cuff and it was bad. "If you vote for me I'll be fair. I'll be fair to my friends and listen to them." Okay, but what if the people having a dispute are your friends? The what?

The second candidate is a new boy in class (by new I mean since Thanksgiving, considering most of the kids have been together since kindergarten). To say he's a little interesting is an understatement. He hasn't' really jelled with any of the other students because of his quirkiness, and there are some other issues going on that would explain his off-beat tendencies but the main point is he didn't stand a chance. So, he gets up to do his speech, and you can see the other kids in class settling down to talk to each other and not listen. But then, the student begins his speech. "A long time ago, a friend told me that only popular people get elected for stuff like this. But I think he's wrong. I think I would be the best person for the job." And he proceeded to list 3 reasons why he'd be good AND provide examples. He ended it with a cute little saying about voting for him and he then made a bee-line for his seat. There was this brief silence and then the whole sixth grade started clapping for him and they commented that it was a really good speech. The last candidate got up to speak and, again, it was off the cuff.

Then we all returned to our classes and started to fill out the votes. One boy was having a dilemma because he wanted to vote for his friend, but he thought the quirky boy would be the better choice. So I stood there and listened to him go back and forth with himself until he finally made up his mind, said thanks and sat down. A second boy came up to me and said he was having trouble deciding who to vote for. I thought he was talking about judge, and he quickly told me he knew who he wanted, it was actually for the mayor spot. I was a little confused because both candidates were his friends. Come to find out he didn't think either would be a good choice. Wow! I was surprised by that one. We talked about it and basically I told him, "Look. One time I was having trouble deciding who I was going to vote for during an election and my mom gave me some good advice. She said, 'Tracey, what you basically have to do in this case is think to yourself, ' who would be the lesser of the two evils.' In other words who is less bad." He said that helped him a lot and he went back and voted.

The quirky kid became judge (by a LANDSLIDE), and the lesser of the two evils won mayor. One of the mayor candidates thinks he's all that because he's funny, and the class clown. But today he learned that he wasn't necessarily the best person for the job. That TOTALLY knocked the wind out of his sails.

So I was proud of my sixth graders yesterday. They did prove that the most popular person doesn't always win, the most qualified does. They took to heart what we'd asked them to do, and the were serious about it. It gives me hope for the future.