This afternoon I was teaching a small group of four students. Somehow the subject of "Mayor" came up. I told the children that my husband was Mayor of Fort White, just in case they didn't know.
"Get outta' town!" one girl shouted.
Another girl put both hands over her heart and said, "So you're the Mayor's wife? I can't believe I know the Mayor's wife."
The third girl said, "I knew that."
But the only African American boy said, "Ohhh, my mama loves him. She talks about the Mayor all the time."
By now I'm wondering if it is 'good talk' or 'bad talk', so I asked what she said about my husband.
This ten year old boy couldn't tell me what she said except that the Mayor was speaking in Gainesville soon and his mama and all her friends were going to go hear him speak.
"Well, I didn't know he was speaking in Gainesville," I answered, but told the boy I would ask my husband exactly when he was speaking there and about what. Then I added, "Are you sure we're talking about the same Mayor?"
"Yeah," he answered. "His name is Obama or something like that, isn't it?"
Now it was my turn to shout, "Get outta' town! You're talking about the President, not the Mayor!"
I'm thinking his fourth grade teacher should make sure she has this child's attention when teaching social studies.
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