3rd graders hate george bush

Today I taught a lesson about the benefits of living in the United States. Children listed several ideas like: freedom of speech, press, religion, protection, Voting for leaders, balance of power, right to impeach the president. And so on. Then they were to choose one benefit and write why they think it is the most important and then draw a picture. Without my prompting, 4 out of 22 students picked freedom of speech and stated something along the lines of:

"I think freedom of speech is the most important benefit of the United States. We can say what we feel, like "George Bush stinks" and we won't get put in jail. Freedom of speech is protected by the Constitution and the government can never take it away."

I was delighted by these responses. Even third graders can see through the bullshit.


Even so, I didn't inform the children that Bush is probably 2 seconds away from imprisoning anyone who speaks out against him and that he has already taken away a number of our constitutional right. I'm only substituting at this point; if it was my OWN class, I would have told them the truth. But I can't blow my cover before I even get on the inside of the system...