The backstory: Two parts to the back story here. One is that kids in nearly every grade at my school are required to get an academic calendar that we call their "agenda." My son has had one for years and many kids in the upper school use one. Clue number two is that I'm a teacher at a prep school and so I have a lot of conversations with students, some of them very bright students. One of my favorites is student A, who also happened to have a very bright older brother with whom I had some of the most engaging conversations of my career. A is different from his brother (though just as bright) and we have conversations that range freely from one topic to the next. Today, we started by talking about fantasy football, took a journey over to Alexander the Great (and how it was he was so great), ran through transcendentalism, and ended up thinking about government power. A had a quote about government power that he wanted to share with me.
Me: Lay it on me.
A: I'm nervous. I don't know what you'll think.
Me: We can't know until you tell me. So tell me.
A: All power is derived from organization.
Me: Interesting.
A: Yeah. But is it good enough to be on some kid's agenda one day?
And that, in a nutshell, is one of the reasons I like this kid so damned much.
Splendid! I love being around kids like this. It makes me feel like society still has a chance.
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