A Teachable Moment
Oct. 30th, 2008 11:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sepdetOkay, I'm afraid the Obama-love is starting to rub off on me, but I am charmed.
A month ago a second grade class wrote to various celebrities. Enclosed were "Flat Stanley" dolls. Remember Flat Stanley? He was the boy in a children's story who was flattened in a freak accident that modern children's books probably wouldn't dare include -- he was flattened by a heavy picture falling on his bed -- and after this, of course, being a millimeter thin, he had many adventures.
So anyway, off the Flat Stanleys went into the unknown.
Mark Spitz, Nancy Pelosi, Alex Rodrigez and John McCain have not written back.
Obama, however, wrote back. His letter is delightful. In spots it strikes me as tough going for a second grader, but of course the recipient shared it with his class, his teacher, and the whole school, and they're all talking about it. So I'm sure they've learned a lot. In the course of telling about how he took Stnaley around with him, Obama snuck in a whole mini-lesson on US government.
I keep forgetting Obama was a professor for a while.
Here's a PDF of the letter.
I love the part where Obama talks about how he gets "a little nervous" talking in front of crowds, so Flat Stanley gives him some helpful tips on public speaking!
I also love the subtle bit of office humor at the end:
A month ago a second grade class wrote to various celebrities. Enclosed were "Flat Stanley" dolls. Remember Flat Stanley? He was the boy in a children's story who was flattened in a freak accident that modern children's books probably wouldn't dare include -- he was flattened by a heavy picture falling on his bed -- and after this, of course, being a millimeter thin, he had many adventures.
So anyway, off the Flat Stanleys went into the unknown.
Mark Spitz, Nancy Pelosi, Alex Rodrigez and John McCain have not written back.
Obama, however, wrote back. His letter is delightful. In spots it strikes me as tough going for a second grader, but of course the recipient shared it with his class, his teacher, and the whole school, and they're all talking about it. So I'm sure they've learned a lot. In the course of telling about how he took Stnaley around with him, Obama snuck in a whole mini-lesson on US government.
I keep forgetting Obama was a professor for a while.
Here's a PDF of the letter.
I love the part where Obama talks about how he gets "a little nervous" talking in front of crowds, so Flat Stanley gives him some helpful tips on public speaking!
I also love the subtle bit of office humor at the end:
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no subject
Date: 2008-10-31 07:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-31 07:05 am (UTC)You have my current address. Been trying to write you a reply!
I think your Greek is probably better than mine now!
no subject
Date: 2008-10-31 10:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-31 03:15 pm (UTC)If you didn't catch him on The Daily Show, I highly recommend watching it. I don't think I've ever seen a politician look so at ease on one of those shows, where part of the format is to make fun of them. Also, it's funny.
Also also, I emailed you at your cox account and your gmail account but never got a response. Are those addresses still a good way to contact you?
no subject
Date: 2008-10-31 03:32 pm (UTC)Though, I know of another incident where some girl scouts trying to get a badge about something related to civil service or election stuff were left in the cold with Obama but got tons of stuff from McCain (though I don't like either of them haha). It really just depends I guess on timing and who receives it (the campaign workers or manager whatever) at the most opportune time and can get an approval or response from the politician, athlete, person of interest, etc... but very cool anyway. :D
no subject
Date: 2008-10-31 04:41 pm (UTC)