Mayor Mamdani and Ms. Rachel Upstaged by Kids at Lower Manhattan School
Mayor Zohran Mamdani has not lacked for public attention since taking office on January 1, but on Friday morning he found himself in the unaccustomed position of being upstaged during an appearance at a Lower Manhattan public school.
The setting was the 3K/Pre-K Center at 2-26 Washington Street, in the Financial District near the Battery, which he visited to highlight his announcement the previous day that City Hall had reached an agreement with Governor Kathy Hochul to expand free childcare to children as young as two years old throughout New York City.
To bring attention to this event, City Hall’s press office arranged for Rachel Anne Accurso to attend. Better known to tens of millions of toddlers and their parents as Ms. Rachel, she is a YouTube personality and educator who presides over an entertainment and scholastic brand estimated to be worth in excess of $50 million.
After leading the several dozen assembled students in rousing choruses of “The Wheels on the Bus” and “Hop Little Bunnies,” Ms. Accurso tried to focus the proceedings on the matter at hand by saying, “I feel happy today,” then turning the Mr. Mamdani and asking, “how do you feel?”
Taking his cue, the Mayor answered, “I feel very happy today!”
Ms. Accurso invited him to elaborate with, “why do you feel happy today?”
He began, “I feel happy because…” only to be interrupted by an ecstatic toddler who blurted out, “I feel happy, too!”
“We might all feel happy…” the Mayor persevered, before another student shouted, “I feel happy I’m with Rachel!”
As the Mayor tried to begin again, a third child added, “I felt sad when someone broke my feelings.”
Attempting to hit the reset button, Ms. Accurso gamely turned to Mr. Mamdani again and asked, “so why are you feeling happy?”
Speaking quickly enough to dodge another interjection, he said, “because yesterday we announced that New York City is going to deliver universal childcare for every two-year-old across the five boroughs,” which elicited a smattering of polite applause, following which a pupil said, “I’m happy because my Mom gave me flowers,” and another child said, “quack, quack, quack!”
“Giving makes us so happy,” Ms. Accurso affirmed, “and giving childcare makes everyone happy.” She then suggested, “how about we sing, ‘If You’re Happy and You Know It’?” – which provoked a much heartier round of applause and cheers.
After this song was finished, Ms. Accurso introduced the only celebrity who could outshine even her. “I have a friend here who wants to say ‘hi,’ and maybe he’ll come out of we say his name loud enough.” The children needed no further prompting to know she was referring to Herbie, a cuddly orange puppet who appeared on the lap of her husband and partner, Aron, and promptly stole the show from both Ms. Rachel and the Mayor, by leading the class in “The Itsy Bitsy Spider” and “The Alphabet Song.”
At that point, New York City Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels tried to wrap things up by saying, “I just want to thank you for being the best class I’ve seen all year,” to which one student replied with an incredulous “What?!”
A girl named Chloe then asked if she could speak. Invited to the front of the room, she bypassed both Ms. Accurso and the Mayor, making a beeline for Herbie. But when she approached the puppet, the child lost her voice and could only hug him silently.
Ms. Accurso said afterwards, “the night before we sang with the kids, I sent the Mayor’s team a video of ‘Wheels on the Bus,’ in case he wanted to practice. I figured he’d be too busy with more important things. Right away, they wrote back that he did want to practice, which I thought was so sweet! He showed up and nailed the song and choreography. Most importantly he was delighted to spend the morning with a bunch of three-year-olds, Herbie the puppet, and our wonderful educators.”