The kids, looking nautical and adorable in the captain hats I bought them, are doing an activity where they are fighting to be the last person on a boat.  I’ve allowed them to choose their own controversial characters this year, and we have quite the range.  From Genghis Khan to Mike Tyson, Marjorie Taylor Greene to Dolly Parton, Benedict Arnold to YouTube entrepreneur Dhar Mann, we have 20 very different personalities with quite varied resumes.  

These are my ExPO (Gifted and Talented) 8th graders, and they are worldly.  Probably the last class I’ll have that hasn’t fully been pandemic and technology paralyzed, they are arguing forcefully yet graciously.  At this very moment, Joan of Arc is calling out Marjorie Taylor Greene on her racism, to which Marjorie Taylor Greene replied, “You didn’t let black people in your army.”  Mike Tyson came to Joan of Arc’s defense by saying, “There weren’t very many black people in France then.”  (Prediction: The Mike Tyson in ExPO 8 will one day be a very successful politician, lawyer, and businessman).

Dolly Parton just attacked Pele for having many affairs and countless offspring.  Genghis Khan replied, “What does that have to do with him remaining on the boat?”  Will Smith chimed in with, “Of course, you would say that.  You fathered so many kids that 16 million men alive today are directly descended from you.” (They’ve done their research).  Unhappy with this comment by Will Smith about his children and his number of marriages and concubines, Genghis Khan retorted, “You’re really going to opine (fabulous word, right?) about another man’s wives?  You can’t even control the one you have, but she sure controls you and gets to stray from your marriage.” (Tough crowd).

Pele just asked an impactful, funny, but realistic question, and the kids are still laughing. He dryly and matter-of-factly asked, “Who here has had an affair?”  Marjorie Taylor Greene, Genghis Khan, Pele, and Mike Tyson raised their hands immediately and proudly, with a “no shame in my game” attitude.  You know what?  Genghis Khan was right in his question about why Pele’s affair held any significance in terms of his remaining on the boat.  The only person who should have been impacted by his affair was his wife, and that should have remained between the two of them.  And, what people need to understand is that affairs are not always one-dimensional or one-sided.  People need to open their minds and their hearts and recognize that one incident does not define a person. Lifelong persecution, without investigating the facts, is destructive, unjustified, and inhumane.