Last week I was a parent volunteer for my 8-year-old son’s third grade field trip. All three third-grade classes walked about eight blocks to sing at a local nursing home, so they needed parent volunteers to keep the kids from sprawling out all over the streets.

While we were walking, some kids behind me in line noticed the Obama button on my bag. So the ensuing conversation went like this:

Kid 1: Hey, Obama! Yeah!

Kids 2-3: Yeah!

Kids 1-3 (chanting): O-BAM-A! O-BAM-A!

Kid 4: No, no, McCain!

Kids 1-3 (still chanting): O-BAM-A! O-BAM-A!

Kid 4: Why do you want Obama?

Kid 1: Because he’s for change.

Kid 2: Because he’s cool!

Kid 3: Because he wants to help people.

Kid 1 (to Kid 4): Why do you want McCain?

Kid 4: I don’t know. Just because.

Kids 1-3 (again): O-BAM-A! O-BAM-A!

Eventually the chanting ended when we passed a house already decorated for Halloween, and the conversation turned instead to “ooh” and “spooky!” (Politics clearly holds less sway in the minds of third-graders than things they can all agree on, like spider webs and big fake bats.) But I thought it was interesting that even these very young kids seemed to have gotten the tenor of the debate about right. “Just because” isn’t very convincing, even to a third grader.