Monday, September 24, 2007

Honesty, its such a lovely word. Everyone is so untrue...

Anna told me that her school is focusing on "Honesty" this month. While Anthony was on a fruitless tech-support call and Colin left to go play with trains, Anna and I discussed this virtue. She listened really attentively, and also contributed to the conversation.

Who do you associate with honesty? Well, pretty soon we were talking about the old George Washington parable involving the cherry tree. I said, "How do you think we would feel if you chopped down one of our trees?"

"Oh, I would never do that!" Anna said very earnestly.

"OK, what if Colin chopped down one of my peach trees? How would that be?" I said.

Anna sucked in her breath and shook her head, saying, "Oh no!"

It's funny, when I asked her if she knew who George Washington was, she said, "Our president." I think she was confusing our first president with our current president. Unfortunately, I do not think our current or immediately former president epitomize honesty.

We talked some more about George the "father of our country", where to find his likeness, how he became the president, what he did before the war, and how our country was founded. What I have to Google now is Anna's questions - how many people voted for him (well, he got 100% of the electoral college's votes), and when/what did he die of? (December 14, 1799, aged 67, of laryngitis/pneumonia/blood letting)

2 comments:

Emily said...

It's cool that you can have real conversations with her now. It's amazing to see how her mind and personality are developing.

ColeBugsmommy said...

You know what Cole knows of Washington? He had wooden teeth. I love helping them discover new things and learning new things myself. It is a wonderful bonding experience.