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“I don’t,” said Marvin. “But you have to watch—”
“We don’t have to watch anything!” his mother interrupted. “Now, I don’t want to hear any more about it. If you keep it up, there will be no TV for a month. You may go to your room and get started on your homework.”
Marvin didn’t know what to do. His parents wouldn’t listen to him. They thought he was a selfish, rotten TV mush-brain. He slowly started up the stairs.
Linzy caught up to him. “You want to see my new shoes, Marvin? They’re really pretty. They have bows and buttons.”
Marvin tried to smile.
Down below, in the family room, Marvin’s father turned on the news. Marvin heard Clark Rogers’s voice coming from the television.
“The president went looking for good citizens today. And he found them at Dogwood Elementary School.”
Marvin stopped.
“Hey, Marvin, that’s your school!” Jacob shouted from the bottom of the stairs.
“That’s Marvin!” exclaimed Marvin’s father.
“I want to see!” said Linzy. She ran down the stairs.
Marvin stepped down a couple of steps and leaned way over the banister. He saw himself on TV adding the big numbers. Then he saw the president talking to his class.
“America is not just a place on a map. America is made up of all of its citizens. If we want America to be a great country, it is up to every single one of us—me, you, Mr. McCabe, Mrs. North, Marvin—to be good citizens.”
“Did he mean you, Marvin?” asked Jacob.
“Shh!” said Marvin’s mother.
“The students in Mrs. North’s third-grade class had lots of ideas about what it means to be a good citizen,” said Clark Rogers.
Marvin saw Casey Happleton on the television.
“Help people who need help.”
“There’s Nick,” said Jacob.
“Don’t fight.”
“And Stuart,” said Marvin’s mother.
“If you, uh, see a fire or something, you should put it out.”
“The students also had lots of interesting and unusual questions for the president,” said Clark Rogers.
Marvin heard Kenny ask, “Do you ever mess up? You know, make mistakes?” He hoped his parents listened to the president’s answer.
“Of course. Everybody makes mistakes. And when you’re president, you can really mess up big time. But if you’re smart, you learn from your mistakes. And you should try to be understanding and forgive other people when they make mistakes.”
Marvin nearly fell over the banister, but caught himself.
“The children in Mrs. North’s class were very impressed with their visitor, and I think the president was very impressed with the children,” said Clark Rogers.
“There’s Marvin!” screamed Linzy.
Marvin strained to look.
“Is there something we should be doing now if we want to be president someday?”
