Teacher, so Bush is bad?

"Good afternoon class." I said as I walked into the classroom.

I was excited about the day's lecture. We were reading about Native American storytelling, lore and myths and I couldn't wait to talk to these kids about this wonderful culture. I had over prepared for the class and knew just what I wanted to talk about and what I wanted them to get out of the class. I hoped to talk about the peopling of North America, the Columbus myth, the wonderful history, their demise and their ultimate fate. I was going to use the totem pole as a springboard into it. I walked into the class carrying a globe and a big smile. Is there really anything better than teaching?

So, after prepping the kids and making sure they were familiar with the vocab and names, I started.

"When was America discovered" I asked, just baiting them for the 1492 response.

"1492." One boy answered.

"Really? Okay, what did he find when he got there?"

Of course I know that he did not even find the mainland, but really landed close to The Dominican Republic. I decided not to confuse them with this bit of history.

"He found Indians." They all said.

"So, if he found Indians, did he really discover anything but someone else's home?"

I let them think about it for a minute.

"No, he didn't really discover anything." My brightest student replied.

Before I could go on with the lecture, a girl who lived in Dubai for a few years interupted.

"Is that what George Bush is trying to do in Iraq?"

I laughed. What a classic comment for a nine year old to say. I noticed that some of the kids weren't as savy with their current events, but they all knew who Bush was and they seemed interested. I decided to postpone the planned lecture and see what these kids knew about the current state of the world. After making sure everybody was on the same page, I asked them what they knew or thought about the American President. As I expected, not one of them said anything good about him. How could they? Still, I stayed objective and proceeded to dig deeper. They knew about the war in Iraq and wanted to know why we were there fighting. I started from 9/11 and went from there. They all knew what 9/11 was, although they were unsure who did it. I told them who orchestrated the attacks. They all knew who bin Laden was too. What classic villians to be familiar with. So we talked for awhile about it and I used the globe to assist with the geography.

"The people responsible for the attacks lived here (I pointed to Afghanistan) and we are fighting a war here (I pointed to Iraq)."

"Teacher, why is America fighting in Iraq if the bad guys live in Afghanistan?"

Imagine that, a nine year old Korean saw in seconds the idiocy of fighting in Iraq what the majority of Americans took over three years to understand. I couldn't get into real details with these kids because of their age, but they were really hitting the nail on the head. I know that their anti-Bush sentiment is from their parents, but when they all saw the geographical problem in seconds that was not their parents. That was them. They were confused and could not understand why America would do such a thing.

War in Korea is understood differently. The last was they had was "the war". They can't fathom why people would fight a war that seems like it's based on nothing. I agree. How can we? I didn't stop the Bush bashing, but I did not contribute. Class was coming to an end and I asked them if they had any final thoughts on this topic since we would have to get back to the lecture next class. Grace, the Korean from Dubai, raised her hand.

"Teacher, so Bush is bad?"

The bell rang. I looked at her and smiled. It was unspoken, but I could tell she knew how I felt. She returned the smile and I walked out of classroom just happy to help.