POTTSTOWN PA – If you had a million dollars, what would YOU do?

Admit it. You’ve been asked the question before; maybe by someone else who was dreaming big dreams, but more likely you’ve asked it of yourself.

It may arise as you buy a ticket for Wednesday’s (Oct. 10, 2012) Powerball lottery … for which, by the way, the estimated jackpot is not just $1 million but $50 million. It could have struck while you peeled game stickers off the french fries box during lunch at a popular fast food restaurant.

Or, worse, maybe it arrived when the mail did, carrying with it this month’s mortgage bill (again).

Adults aren’t the only ones indulging in million-dollar fantasies. Some students at Lower Pottsgrove Elementary School have done it too.

Those in the homerooms of teachers Sharon Yergey and Brenda Novak recently were involved in a writing assignment called “Guess Who?” They were asked to offer short responses to a series of 10 fill-in-the-blank statements. Their fellow classmates were then asked to guess who the authors were, based on their answers.

The statements?

• “My favorite book is;”
• “My favorite thing to do in the summer is;”
• “When I grow up I want to be;”
• “I want to learn more about;”
• “I wish that;”
• “My favorite thing to eat is …;”
• “I am good at;”
• “My favorite thing to do in the winter is ;”
• “My favorite subject in school is,” and, yes;
• “If I had a million dollars I would …”

Experts say such exercises are valuable because they get kids thinking about hopes, aspirations and activities. They prompt students to explore and articulate their interests to others. They demand clear communication in just a few words. In short, they require the participants to think just like the adults they will someday become.

What would the students do with a million bucks? Several opted for selflessness. “Bye (sic) things for my family,” one wrote. “Give some of the money to people who don’t have homes,” another offered. “Give some money to my familey (sic),” a third proposed. “Donate it to the cancer society,” said a fourth.

Some were globally minded. “I would travel around the world,” one suggested. In neatly penciled cursive, another was more specific: “Go to Argentina.” A third chose vacation fun closer to home: “Have a water park in my backyard.”

A few tackled the problem pragmatically. “Us (sic) it to pay for college, braces, an (sic) a comfy chair and save the money left over,” one reported. “Spend it on clothes shoes and more dogs,” wrote another. “Buy drum sets,” a budding musician claimed, and then added, “& the extra $ I would buy Paul McCarthney.”

The former Beatle might be flattered or flustered.

And there was one raw, honest, unadulterated, we’ve-all-thought-it-too response that inadvertently recognized each of us is human. In bold block script, one scribe related his or her ultimate heart’s desire for that stack of smackers.

“Rub-it in my sister’s face.”