Earlier this week I stopped by 5th Grade while the students, in groups of three sitting in the classroom and hallway, were writing and practicing skits on the three branches of government: executive, legislative, and judicial. Their prompt was to convince the other two branches of the government that their branch was best. Here's a snippet from their rehearsal session:

• Legislative: We get to make laws....
• Executive: And I can veto them....
• Legislative: And with a 2/3's vote we can override your veto.....
• Judicial: And we can rule your laws as unconstitutional and invalidate them....
• Executive: And I am the one who nominates who gets to serve in your branch....
• Legislative: And without our approval your nominee will never become a Supreme Court Justice.....

It went on like this for a few minutes as they captured the spirit and balance of the three branches as imagined by the authors of the Constitution in 1789...