The Sometimes Secret

Background: we have been working like crazy on Son#3’s name, his printing it to be exact. It is not a hard name to write, but we want to make sure we get it down just so, since his teacher is a pain in my neck.

Today they had elections in their classroom. He gets in my car at pick up and says very matter of factly, “George Bush won in my class today 17-10", like his kindergarten was predicting the outcome of the election. I asked if they talked about who they voted for and he said, “NO! MOM! It is a secret ballot. You don’t talk about who you vote for. Our teacher told us. After I voted all these kids in my class who don’t listen kept saying, “J., J., J., who did you vote for?” but I said nothing. It is my secret.” I laughed and was happy his teacher has really impressed upon them the importance of it being THEIR vote.

Flash forward a couple hours, I’m now wondering how this ‘voting’ took place as none of them read. So I asked.

Son#3, “Well Mom, we walked into this room and we had a sheet of paper and they told us the top was Bush and it begins with the letter B and Kerry was the bottom and begins with the letter K and we needed to cross out the guy we DIDN’T want. So I crossed out Kerry and then I put it in the box.”

I was impressed. I said, “Wow. That’s pretty cool. So even your teachers don’t know who you voted for.”

He replied, “Oh. I put my name at the top of my ballot.”

So much for secret ballots...