Hillarysworld

Destiny · Platinum

(2/11/10)"My daughter has to dress as a President for school and make a speech" by Destiny

rachel · Platinum

That sucks and is not fair! Does she have to be president of the united states or can she do another country. Other countries have moved forward and there several women presidents from other countries to choose from.

Hillarysmygirl16 · Administrator

Why is President's day about past Presidents how about future Presidents? Why do girls have to be First Lady? Perhaps the teacher can be asked that question.

As I just witnessed the election of the First African American President I would assume that I will also witness the election of the first female President. So why can't girls chose a female who may become President or whom they would like to become President.

Children have no business talking politics it leads to to much trauma for them. Its best they stay in a child's place so I am glad your daughter didn't want to do the whole Obama thing. It should be up to a child rather or not they want to talk politics. They are usually older though. Little kids don't really understand this nor do they really care.

I wish teachers would think before they give some of the assisane assignments they give.

Destiny · Platinum

rachel wrote:

That sucks and is not fair! Does she have to be president of the united states or can she do another country. Other countries have moved forward and there several women presidents from other countries to choose from.

You're so right, Costa Rica just elected their first women as president. I can't imagine asking this nightmare teacher about another country, I think that would be too much for her to think about.

It is very unfair, especially when a child asks a reasonable request. Her teacher made it very clear that it had to a be a US President ONLY, we thought a first lady in history would be accepted, but clearly the school system doesn't believe that first ladies are as important as a president.

Our daughter is beyond the average nine year old. She got a chance to meet Hillary, talk with her and get a photo with her. She made her own signs for our Hillary rallies, and media protests and for the Tea Parties that we have gone to. She read her own speech at a LA Puma meeting about the importance of Hillary. She does not look at obama as a black man, she looks at him as just a man. She does not understand why the color of the skin should make obama a more important person to become president over a female, who never has become a president. I heard her say to a friend during the primaries, "he's a man, they have all been men, we need a woman for president, because there has never been a women president, ever, but he's a man so he will win because people hate women".

I know that she was hearing all this at the rallies, protests and puma meetings, but when you are yelled at and flipped off by black men while they are yelling, "We want a bro, not a ho", it stays with you. During our 4 rallies for Hillary, I'll never forget my daughter asking me if she could 'do the finger thing back at them' and this, "mommy, what does ho mean, and someone yelled at me that Hillary was a c*nt, what does that mean?" We had to remove our Hillary for President stickers off our cars because people (mostly black men) were playing chicken with us and flipping us off, with two little children in the back seat. We will never forget and our children will forever be changed by obama pushing the importance of his skin color. In our family, skin color was never mentioned. In fact, during this election, my son asked if our friend, Rudy (who is very dark skinned compared to obama), if obama is a black man how come he doesn't look like Rudy? All of a sudden my husband and I were forced into discussing different shades of black - white moms with black dads and black moms with white dads and black and white and, middle eastern, etc. We were proud that our children never saw color, now we no longer can say that. The constant reminder that obama is 'special' because he is the first black president, makes the color of his skin very, very important. This is not okay for children to learn. People should be rewarded on merit, not the color of their skin.

It was a simple request, "I would like to be a first lady instead".

Our daughter thinks of obama as being just a man, just like president Bush and all the other 41 presidents, all men. The only difference she sees in obama is that he was mean to Hillary, therefore his supporters were mean to us. We lived it.

-- Edited by Destiny on Thursday 11th of February 2010 02:52:06 AM

Alex · Diamond

How about Chester Arthur? wink

He's another usurper! She could say, "I was really born in Canada (or Nova Scotia, I can't remember, but it wasn't the United States), but I lied just so I could be president."

That would be quite a presentation - memorable! evileye

Sanders · Diamond

Oh, what a pickle!

Hillarysmygirl16 wrote:
Why is President's day about past Presidents how about future Presidents? Why do girls have to be First Lady? Perhaps the teacher can be asked that question. [snip]

That's a good suggestion.

One possible approach is to contact the counselor and say that my kid is really inspired by Hillary and would like to portray her as a president as she would have been.

Of course, if it has to be a past president, we have to look to other countries for female Presidents for inspiration and example. Angela Merkel (President, Germany), Sirimavo Bandarnaike (Prime Minister, Srilanka) and Indira Gandhi (PM, India) and the latest elect in Laura Chinchilla (President, Costa Rica) come to mind. This approach may also involve talking with the counselor and possibly the headmaster/mistress of school.

I would request a Parent-Teacher meeting involving the counselor.

=====

Alternately, she could pick a president like Adams and have him talk about his wife's work for women. Abigail Adams as the focus. There is another First Lady in history who got a law passed. I have to look it up.

-- Edited by Sanders on Thursday 11th of February 2010 10:55:32 AM

Building 4112 · Moderator

She could do Bill Clinton, and how he campaigned for his wife to be president, and what
he said "we are not quitters", he made some great statements about Hillary.

Jen the Michigander · SuperModerator

What is this teacher doing for Women's History Month? It's coming up soon. Are the kids in this class doing projects where they all (including the boys) pretend to be famous women? Are they doing any kind of project at all?

If you're up for it, Destiny, now might be a good time to be pro-active and talk to the teacher about Women's History Month. Your daughter is obviously getting a solid real-world education, but what about the other kids in her class?

Hillarysmygirl16 · Administrator

My guess is nothing because unlike African Americans women never really made sure it got the publicity that black history month got. We are going to have to change that. Next month we need to really blog this information. Get it out there.
First I ever heard of woman's history month was last year at the village when I was working on that huge thread that we had over there. I really learned a lot.

VotedHillary · Platinum

Why is President's day about past Presidents how about future Presidents?

Because it is in honor of those that have held the position in our country and not about hypothesis.

-- Edited by VotedHillary on Sunday 14th of February 2010 01:09:28 AM

VotedHillary · Platinum

I'm just hating this teacher, but my daughter likes her and has asked us not to go any further with our quest.

I stayed away from this thread in order to sort my thoughts out completely regarding this issue.

Here is what I think. The teacher made a reasonable assignment for Presidents' Day. She did not require the entire class to portray Obama, but left the choice to the student. So to me, this was not an unethical assignment. Whoever said your daughter should portray Bill Clinton is correct. While I would love to see a FLOTUS Day, it doesn't exist and as such, the teacher was correct in denying your daughter portraying Hillary. Much to our chagrin, Hillary is not POTUS and therefore isn't eligible for this assignment.

Here is my concern. You wrote "our quest" and I have to ask who the "our" is. Obviously not your daughter since she asked you to stop. Children need to be children and not dragged into the political arena. That dubious day will come soon enough.

I think the efforts to bring to light to her class the achievements of women would have been better served to work pro-active by telling the teacher that this was an interesting assignment...and would the same be done during Women's Month.

Your daughter obviously has a rapport with this teacher..as she does you. You can easily monitor what this teacher is "teaching" by talking with her. But, I have a problem with changing the rules of the game simply because we don't like them.

We all have to do things in life we don't like. This assignment was neither propagandist or unethical. Again, work with this teacher regarding Women's Month assignments.

We need to pick our battles carefully so we do represent equal rights rather than "special" rights.

Feel free to slam away on me.

-- Edited by VotedHillary on Sunday 14th of February 2010 01:12:24 AM

Destiny · Platinum

I really appreciate all the advise.

Our daughter is only nine, so she is relying on us to help her learn about women's rights.

Last Thursday night, we all sat around and talked about it and my daughter changed her mind and asked if we could talk to her teacher directly because as my daughter said, "maybe my teacher didn't understand why it would be better for girls to be women, than men". We are so proud of our daughter.

We wrote another letter to the teacher Friday morning and asked for her to call us in the evening. So Friday night she called and both my husband and myself got on the phone to speak with her. We explained that it would be a good opportunity for girls to have a choice whether to be a man or a woman (who was married to a president). She said that no one had complained ever and that we were the first ones. We told her that we understood the assignment to be a US President, but now that it's 2010 maybe it would be valuable for little girls to be able to portray a woman, a first lady. We even brought up the fact that boys would never be asked to put their heads through a hole with a dress below, and talk like a woman. We also made a suggestion that our daughter be a first lady who talked about their husband as president. The teacher said that if our daughter wants to do a report on a first lady, she can do one at the end of the year. Then we asked about women's history month and my daughter's teacher said, "we use to do something years ago, but now don't and we won't have time for any more oral reports until the end of the year".

Her teacher went on and told us how much fun the students have pretending to be a president and how much they enjoy learning about all the different presidents. Our last suggestion was to have our daughter not dress like a man, be a man or talk like a man, but give a report on a president. Her teacher insisted that it's fun for them to pretend.

After we hung up, my husband and I looked at each other and said, "that teacher is living in the dark ages!" I got a chance to tell two other moms about this (they both called today for playdates) and they said that it was a great suggestion we made and it was too bad that the teacher didn't want to do it. Women give up SO easily, they don't want to 'upset' anyone. I would have offered to call or write a letter to the teacher.

This is about women's rights, plain and simple.

The funny thing about Bill Clinton is that our daughter knows very little about him and knows an incredible amount about Hillary. Unfortunately, during some of our media protest rallies, our daughter heard people talking about Bill Clinton having sex with a young woman. It came up because that issue was bought up in the media as a slam against Hillary for not leaving her husband, etc. And, that people felt sorry for her and that she only stayed in the relationship for political reasons and all the other nasty rumors.

Our children asked to campaign for Hillary. In fact, it was our children who first got us to campaign on a street corner for her. We had just met Hillary on Feb. 2, 2008 and our election was on Feb. 5th here in California. It was the eve before the election and I was driving us home from Karate lessons and our children saw two guys on a corner holding "Hillary for President" signs. My 7 and 9 year old asked for me to stop and help them. I said, "no, we have to get home and I have to make dinner". They both kept asking, so after a few blocks, I turned around and found a parking space. As the three of us walked to the corner, I saw the two guys leaving and I called after them and when they realized that we wanted to cheer for Hillary, they came back and shared their signs with us. They told me about HillaryClinton.com and the rest is history. The kids told their dad how great it was to cheer on the first woman president and we were all hooked.

I believe that we need to speak out for women's rights at any and all opportunities.

Building 4112 · Moderator

If the school can make the time for Black History Month, they damn well have NO excuse
for NOT making the time for Women's History Month.............I'd go above the teacher and address this issue.

-- Edited by Building 4112 on Sunday 14th of February 2010 11:03:02 AM

Sanders · Diamond

Building 4112 wrote:
If the school can make the time for Black History Month, they damn well have NO excuse for NOT making the time for Women's History Month............. I'd go above the teacher and address this issue.

-- Edited by Building 4112 on Sunday 14th of February 2010 11:03:02 AM

STAMP!!

Destiny, Thank you for sharing that. Your story reminds me of my own kid and I standing on the roadsides waving Hillary signs Feb 1-2-3-4 despite pelting icy rain and slushy roadside. Lots of people honking. It was great fun.

I am surprised in a progressive state, we have a teacher who totally did not listen to your perspective.

Perhaps the biggest statement to make is to say that she has no president to look up to because there is no female president of the US. OR, she could make a statement on "IF I WERE THE PRESIDENT" and I think that might even be a stronger position to take.

Of course, Adams could talk about Abigail Adams work... but dressing as a man though..