1. Bring back the poll tax. I'd only charge a dollar but that would be enough to keep the riff-raff out.

2. Outlaw telemarketing!

3. hang all the lawyers

4. I'd release and deport our worse criminals to Iraq & Afganistan and THEN pull our troops out.

5. I'd start havin' a thang for cigars.

I haven't read anyone else's replies yet, so I hope I don't repeat too much of what others have said.

If I were president, I would...

1. Make peace with those we are at war with

2. Fight Poverty 

3. End the stupid TAKS test (or state mandated test), so that kids will Love learning more than ever

4. Make daily naps mandatory...we are a sleep deprived nation! (me included....)

5. Take mental health seriously...we need find a way to detect and treat mental problems at an early age so that those children won't turn into  screwed up adults.

Really? How?

Tony Blair has already offered peace to Afghanistan, before the invasion. Give up Bin Laden or give up power, he said. The Taliban refused to make peace. The same offer was made to Iraq in 2002. Turns out the reason they are our enemies is that they don't like us.

Tell me, how would you stop the Taliban and Al-Qaeda from attacking people, including Americans?

Israel has offered peace to the Arabs in 1948 (and was invaded for it), in 1967 (and the Arabs refused), in the 1980s (and the PLO started another war), and in 1994 (and the PLO broke the peace treaty in 2001). Making peace is a lot more difficult than it should be.

This is an interest shift in policy from previous attempts to encourage poverty.

How would you fight poverty? Dump another few billion dollars into programs that didn't work?

One good way to fight poverty is to exile all millionaires. That way the average income will go down and so will the poverty line. Hence fewer people would be below the poverty line and hence fewer people would be poor.

I don't see that kids will love learning more if there are no tests, or that loving learning more will make kids learn useful things to a useful degree.

That's a good idea.

Oh, yes.

Golly gee, Rose! here you've been Prez. for only one day and ya done gotcha a critic!

1. Neat!

2. I don't have a TV, hate almost everything they show.

3. They would object.

4. Of course, that would be considered a violation of international law. Ironically, that's pretty much what Iraq, Afghanistan, and Saudi-Arabia have done to the US and Europe.

5. I hope that won't be policy.

I really like that!

LoL...I see that.

Actually I just wrote down what came to mind. I guess I need to get myself some political advisors (takers, anyone?)...I do tend to see the whole picture instead of the parts, afterall.

I do want to reply to the state testing. I teach it...I can find so many ways to make it "fun" and "interesting" to the students, but in the end, it is pressure filled and just makes students resent being taught this way.

I am not against being held accountable for what I teach (I am pretty used to it now).  I just think there is a better way to do it (formative testing is something I'd like to see done).

I nominate Chris! I'm sure there's a movie scene with every possible senario of what could possibly go wrong that he could pull something from!

I have been a teacher once. I taught Linux at a computer school. But mostly I have been a student.

And I hated attempts of teachers to make learning fun and interesting.

Those attempts always ended up attempts to make learning fun and interesting for the majority. And I was always never part of the majority. But even when I was I didn't appreciate the fact that some students/children felt out of the loop because the majority now had fun and they did not. Some of those most interested in learning were usually not part of the majority of the class.

The traditional rules and tests system, although hated by everyone, at least manages not to exclude systematically certain students and created a team spirit when the class realised that everyone is in the same boat.

I don't know what you want to do to make learning fun but I have seen so many of those attempts go wrong because the teacher didn't take into account the group dynamics of the class that I am now against experiments. If your students overwhelmingly support your ideas, that's the moment when the class split up into a majority who are happy and a minority who are now outsiders kept out by the system.

Sorry, education systems are one of my pet peeves.

I would like to hear what ideas you have. I don't see working replacements for tests.

I'm sorry you feel so blah about the education system...you, of course, are one of many. Let me make it clear that I teach 5th graders...10 and 11 year olds.  It is safe to say that I cannot stand in front of a classroom and lecture all day...lol.  Kids need movement and interaction, something to keep them from falling asleep at their desks.  Of COURSE I am going to try to make it interesting. 

I have been "teaching to the test" for a good part of the school year for the past 8 years.  It takess a toll on students, teachers, and parents.  Our 1st test date is in March, and we have been preparing the students since September.  

What I want is a test at the BEGINNING of the year that will give me an idea of the level a student is at on a certain subject.  Not just some little benchmark test, but a real in depth one that will give me an idea of what I would need to work on with this student for the rest of the year. To me, a formative test would be more useful than the summative testing we have now. This is also beneficial to advanced students, who wouldn't have to be taught skills they already have mastered.

Thanks for challenging my replies, but I just did this out of fun, basically.  I guess I won't be winning any Make Believe JoeUser elections anytime soon, eh?

Truer words were never spoken, my friend.  

1. Legalize marijuana

2. Make the Monday after the Super Bowl a holiday.

3. Make churches like Westboro Baptist Church or any church who tries to hide pedophile priests pay taxes.

4. Make sure none of my favorite TV shows get cancelled. Chuck and Pushing Daisies are great shows that don't get high enough ratings. Come on, people!

5. Change the President's song. Enough of that boring ass Hail to the Chief. I will change it every month. The first month will be Jungle Boogie from Kool and the Gang.

Roy, since I don't know how to embed the youtube video for it, can you do it for me?

I like the test at the beginning of the year. In fact my Hebrew class at the University of Haifa worked that way. One test at the beginning to put students into the right classes. One at the end, to see if they have improved. Then another one before the next grade to see which grade they should be in now.

Liked it a lot.

I would vote for you.

You think about the issues, at least when it comes to education. You wouldn't do worse than the others.

Maybe.  Or maybe they would be so busy defending their actions, they would have no time to screw up (and spend) more money.  You can get a lot of investigating done for $170k per (the current salary of the criminals). Besides, if you want to get the most bang for your buck, dont you mine where the vein is largest?