Annyong!

Well. I have to say I had a moment of genius today when my kids in one of my classes mentioned wanting to name their team Obama.

"Did you know," I said, "that Friday is a very important day for Obama and McCain?"

This class of high-level third graders hadn't heard. I wasn't about to explain that, well, actually they might not be debating tomorrow because the American economy has gone to hell in a hand basket as my old English teacher Mrs. Brown used to say. But I won't go there. And did you know? The debate, if held, will be at my Alma mater--Ole Miss, which is just awesome and shows such strides that the university and our country have made since those ugly years in the 1960s.
Back to topic.

To illustrate a debate to my class, I called up Jackson and Harvard (seriously the smartest kid at Songwon Elementary who wants to go to an American Ivy League school) and asked them their opinions, on, "I don't know. What do you think about lowering taxes?"

Jackson: "I don't know."
Harvard: "I think we should not lower taxes because there are many fat people. And then there would be more money for programs to help fat people."

Silence.

And then I laugh and clap. But then a real idea came to me. Let's hold a debate.

So one team of 6 students were Democrats and the other 6 were Republicans. They chose their best and brightest students to be Mr. Obama, Mr. Biden, Mr. McCain and Mrs. Palin.

As for topics, they came up with issues that are affecting Korea, which I thought was the best idea--that way they would know what they were arguing about.

The topics--chosen by the students: Whether we should treat Japan as friends to Korea after they again claimed that the much beloved Korean island Dokdo is theirs; and whether Korea should import beef from the United States after the Mad Cow Scare.

I let each team pick their side of the argument. McCain and his Republicans chose to give Japan the cold shoulder, stop doing business with them and strongly suggest that no Korean should visit this neighboring country (some of which are happening now in Korea); and they chose to not allow beef from the US at all.

Obama and his team chose to remain close allies with Japan while standing strong on our claim that Dokdo is Korea's but continuing to work with them to keep business ties. They also chose to accept meat from the United States under conditions that the meat was healthy and free of disease.

So each team was given ten minutes to construct their argument, in which they wrote out their scripts.

Then the scene was set. We had four places in front of the class, with the remainder of the students sitting on the floor around them.

I did a roll call.

Mr. Obama? Present (giggle giggle from the girl who played him)
Mr. Biden? Present.
Mr. McCain? Silence. He is still talking to Mrs. Palin.
Mr. McCain??!!? Cough. Present.
Mrs. Palin? Present.

Mr. McCain. Let's start with you. Can you tell us your thoughts on how Korea should treat Japan after they again claimed Dokdo was theirs?

Harvard starts with a great speech about intolerance for Japan, then brings up the Korean/Japanese conflicts and how terribly Japan treated Korea.

Mr. Obama waits calmly until he is finished.

"Well. I disagree,"said this charming third-grade girl. "I think it is important to be friends with Japan. They are our neighbors. We need their money for business. And friendship. And learning Japanese."

They go back and forth.

A question is taken from the audience.

Mr. Obama. Now. Please tell us your thoughts on allowing beef from the US into Korea.

"I think we should allow beef as long as it is healthy. It is much cheaper than Korean and Australian beef. Also, we drink milk from cows in America and we are still alive."

Mr. McCain interrupts. So you care more about cheap prices than keeping Koreans alive?

Mr. Obama is getting angry. But don't you drink milk?

Mr. McCain does not answer.

Don't you? You do.

And the bell rings.

We might not get the real debate on Friday (though I'm still crossing my fingers), but at least I got a good one in class. I could not have been more impressed.