Presidential Lesson

This entry will not do this anecdote justice, this was definitely a situation where you HAD to be there.  I'll do my best to recreate the conversation.  Try to follow, I honestly had a hard time.  

While discussing how the words "candidate" and "vote" are related to my 11 year old client:  

Me:  Who is our president?

Client:  I'm not sure.

Me:  It's Barack Obama.

Client (with a shocked look on her face): I thought he was dead! 

I was shocked to hear her say that, but after thinking about it, she probably thought I meant Osama??

Me: Not, he's not dead, he's our president.  Before he became president he was a "candidate," someone who runs for office, and people had to "vote," or pick him to become president.

Client: Oh.... Isn't there another president? With dark skin?

Me: No, Obama has been the only president that is African American.

Client: No, what about the one that freed the slaves?  Isn't he president?

Me: He WAS president but he wasn't African American.  That was Abraham Lincoln and he was white.  

Client:  What about the other president,  the one who was on the bus that said "heck no I'm not getting off this bus!"

At this point, I'm laughing out loud!

Me: That is Rosa Parks and she was never president.  

I've got to hand it to this client.  Everyone she talked about in this little conversation had SOMETHING to do with politics, granted she jumped decades and centuries, and had her facts a little mixed up, but she was technically on topic??  I'm just hoping she got the lesson on how "candidate" and "vote" go together! :-)