Posted on 05/22/2009 8:59:44 AM PDT by mojito
Thursday was supposed to be the highlight of the year for more than 100 kindergarteners from Stafford County, Va. They got up early and took a chartered bus to the White House for a school field trip. But when they arrived, all the 5-year-olds got was a lesson in disappointment.
The buses from Conway Elementary arrived at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue a little later than planned, and they were locked out.
"We were going to the White House, but we couldn’t get in so I felt sad," 5-year-old Cameron Stine said.
Parents say they were just 10 minutes late for their scheduled tour. School officials say White House staff said they needed to get ready for the president's event with the Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers, so they couldn't come in.
"I was angry cause they were disappointed," parent and chaperone Paty Stine said....
A lot of preparing had gone into the trip. Conway Elementary teachers had been planning the trip for months, each child paid $20 for a seat on the chartered bus, and names were submitted to the White House for clearance.
Parents say they tried to make it on time, but their chartered buses hit heavy traffic that slowed them down substantially. They thought they were supposed to show up by 10:15, but they say they arrived at 10:25 instead, and couldn’t get in.
"The person who headed this White House trip up came out and said, 'I’m sorry, the White House tour's off.' There were a lot of crying kids," parent Barbara Stine said.
(Excerpt) Read more at nbcwashington.com ...
Why didn’t the kids’ leader stand up and say he/she was responsible because they were late? There’s the lesson to be learned.
Luck is an element of every outcome. The more you care about a particular event, the more you factor in the possibility that everything will go against you. The White House did these little kids a favor by refusing to see them. It was not the kids’ fault they were late, but that’s what is valuable for them to learn: just because something isn’t your fault, doesn’t mean the world will adjust for your bad luck.
Yep.
And what the heck, they're 5-year-olds. All they had to do is announce that instead of the White House, they were going to Chucky Cheese. No more disappointment.
And they act like it is some sort of big surprise. "Who could have known?"
When people who are consistently punctual are late once a decade, they say, “It was my fault. I apologize. I understand you have to dock my pay.”
Please, please, PLEASE let Obama hold a news conference about this to draw even MORE attention to it.
IOW, Please let him pull a Pelosi.
Tardiness demonstrates that you are self-centered. If you are informed of an appointment you can think, "I'm supposed to meet him there at such and such a time," or "He's supposed to meet me there at such and such a time."
If you think that you're to meet him, you'll be on time. If you think that he's to meet you, you'll probably be late.
Before I escaped the DC rat race, I made the commute from about 15 miles north of stafford into DC (pretty close to the White House, as well). What a nightmare of a drive even taking HOV lanes - and that was more than a decade ago, can’t image what its like now.
Punctuality is important. The leader of the trip failed first by agreeing to a time that required navigating rush hour traffic, second by once the time was established not planning an appropriate departure time, and third by not standing up and accepting responsibility.
Those kindergartners can learn at least three great lessons from the event, sadly, its likely that no one will talk to them about those lessons.
I agree with you. The adults blew it, not the kids. I feel bad for the kids. This was a very big day for them.
Couldn't the yard apes show up on time?
I think a 5 year old would not really understand the difference between visiting the White House and visiting the President.
There’s so much missing from the story about what was expected for the trip, but clearly the kids thought that they were going to meet the President.
I can think of a whole bunch of other Presidents who would take out a few minutes to greet the kids, especially, if his schedule had already been cleared for meeting the Steelers.
Ten minutes should not have made that much of a difference, not enough to tell them that the trip was canceled. They could have just shortened the tour of the White House by 10 minutes. I gather it was probably going to be longer than that.
I guess zer0 didn’t want to be punished with a bunch of children.
Have YOU ever tried to entertain 100 five year old children for 3 minutes, let alone a half-hour?
The buses left with time to spare, but there were uncontrollable delays enroute.
Sheesh!
This certainly does show the real humanity and understanding of the empty suit in the White House, doesn’t it?
Certainly learned the importance of being on time to a meeting. A good business trait.
Does anyone have pictures/tapes of the crying childern and the Happy Superbowl team with or without the obaby?
So will the WH bailout the Kindergartners, giving all 150 there 20 bucks back?
I went to a GWB event in Kalamazoo Michigan in 2004, and he was like 30 mins late. However he did call from his limo on the high-way, and they played the phone call over the PA to let us know he was on his way, and that he was sorry for being late.
From the article:
Anyone who lives in northern Virginia knows it would be foolish to only budget an hour to travel Interstate 95 in the morning rush hour from the northern outskirts of Fredericksburg and hope to arrive in downtown Washington.
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