Sunday, May 6, 2012

Women's Rights

Max had a big project in 4th grade called the PACE project.  He had to do lots of research, write a detailed report, make a powerpoint presentation, and give an oral presentation to two adult judges, all on a person from Idaho history.  Max picked a hard one!  He chose Emma Edwards, who is famous for designing the Idaho State seal.  She is the only woman to have designed a state seal.  Other than these two sentences I just stated, there is really not much more information out there in cyberworld or the library in reference to her, which is why it was hard.  Other kids chose Chief Joseph...you get my drift!  He was just really impressed by the state seal and that she is the only woman to have designed one.  He did an impressive job of stretching the little information he could find into a very interesting presentation.  When he practiced it at home for Steve and I we were on the edges of our seats.  He is such an animated speaker, so he really did make it very compelling.  He threw out a few jokes like "I am going to take you on a tour...and I don't mean like Star Tours at Disneyland...I mean a tour of some important parts of the life of Emma Edwards."  At the end of his presentation he said, "Enjoy the rest of your day at Disneyland!"  Clever I thought.  He would throw in all kinds of little spontaneous sidenotes as he was presenting to Steve and I, and here is my favorite:  "Emma Edwards thought that women should have the same rights as men, and I think they should too, infact women should probably have even more rights than men because they are so kind and gentle."  I'm not sure if he shared this thought with the judges, but I hope so, because I love it and quite possibly agree!