By Danielle Emerson
Staff Writer
Posted: May 6, 2016 11:27 AM

Kids say the darnedest things.

Sen. John Proos (R-St. Joseph) hosted a group of fifth grade students from his district on Thursday, as legislators do, but the questions he got and the responses he gave – a portion of the Capitol tour we don’t always see and hear in the media – were one-of-a-kind.

Typically, of course, groups visiting the Capitol get to go up the center aisle on the House and Senate floor and take a picture with their state representative or senator, but in this case, Sen. Goeff Hansen (R-Hart) and the media had taken that aisle up to talk about the House DPS proposal from early Thursday morning, so Mr. Proos instead took the kids around the west end of the Senate floor, keeping them off camera.

After scrums with various senators, the Capitol Press Corps went back to sitting in the media section of Senate, right behind the group from Mr. Proos’ district. It was there that he let the kids ask any questions they might have, and boy did they have them – they could’ve been reporters there were so many.

One of the most humorous exchanges came as Mr. Proos described what he does as a state senator. I didn’t hear the question, if there was one, but Mr. Proos said, “I’m kind of like a chief complaint officer, but that’s okay,” reiterating the importance of people being a part of government.

He moved with the group to the center aisle to take a picture and took more questions.

“Do you have kids?”

Proos: “I do. How did you know I have kids?” he joked to the child. “Do I look weary?”

“Are you married?”

Proos: “Yes, my wife works at Whirlpool.” (Not surprising of course, given Whirlpool is headquartered in in his district).

“Do you want to be president?”

Proos: “Do I want to be president? No,” he answered confidently.

“Would you rather be bit by a poisonous snake or stung by a wasp?”

Proos: “I think I’d rather be stung by the wasp. I don’t know how I’d recover from the poison. I think that’s the first time anyone has ever asked me that though.”

Clearly the senator can work a crowd. If only we could hear all the questions kids ask of their representatives, we might learn so much.