Beware the Ides of March...

I wrote this post in my head at about 4am this Saturday morning, when I awoke with anxiety about next school year. The past few weeks, every teacher’s lounge and every staff meeting has been doom-and-gloom about the state of our school district’s education budget being slashed. Symbolically, every March 15th, in budget shortfall years, staff get “you might be laid off” letters. This year, we may lose some school psychologists for the first time in my 9 years in the profession. It’s bad, people.

I may even be laid off due to an administrative rule that puts me in the same category as a first year employee, despite 9 years of experience. I switched districts and I worked part time some of my years, so basically none of my years count in seniority. Awesome. The way layoffs go down in a school district is not by performance, evaluations, or any other reasonable criteria, but by “last hired, first fired” or in my case, “let go because you worked part time a few years.” Some of the most talented teachers I know are in their first or second years in the profession, and they are the first to be cut.

So friends, I sincerely hope that I don’t have to change the name of my blog from “Notes from the School Psychologist Blog” to “Notes from the Former School Psychologist Who Now Works in the Private Sector with no Health Insurance but Still Believes in Public Education and Can’t Work There With Kids Who Need it Blog.” Not as catchy.

Even if I am spared my job, the budget picture is bleak. My school principals have had to cut most support staff. That means that my placement at my middle school would be only four hours a week and my placement at my elementary school would also be a whopping four hours. Goodbye counseling services, goodbye teacher and parent consultation, parent support groups, counseling groups, prevention activities, and all the things I love. Hello testing one kid, writing a report, going to a meeting and leaving. I will be sad to tell my students I see in counseling that I can no longer see them. Sorry about your abandonment issues, poppits.

My schools have also had to cut all supply budgets. No copier repair funds, no supplies. What enrages me is that I bet Goldman Sachs has never spent a day without a functioning copier or pens and pencils. I bet the Bank of America CEO and his cronies have never had to share one pen with three other people in a cramped janitor’s closet. Why can we bail out the foolios who got us in the recession and turn our backs on the students and teachers? Oh, and how much are we spending in Afghanistan again? Ah that’s right 6.7 billion per month. Do you know what California schools could do with just one month of the war budget? I rarely get all political on this blog, but I see how our kids and school staff will be suffering at no fault of their own, and I have a deep sense of sadness and anger.

I wish I could put a more positive spin on this post. All I can do is to encourage anyone who lives in a city where there will be a special election about funding for schools, please, please, I beg you to get your family and friends to vote for a small increase in tax to keep public schools functioning. I just hope our neighbors aren't penny-wise and pound-foolish. Investment in smaller class sizes, mental health professionals, quality teachers, and supplies to learn prevents school failure and the high cost of special education, not to mention the societal cost of drop out.

As for the Ides of March, I will be stalking the mailman on the 15th to see if I have been stabbed in the back 23 times by the Congress, just like Julius Caesar. Stay tuned...

The Politics of Mental Health

Per my Sunday morning ritual, hubby and I watch Meet the Press and This Week while sipping coffee and eating waffles. In some ways, it’s a relaxing ritual, in other ways it is the opposite of relaxing. Today was one of those not-so-relaxing days. The coverage is all about the tragedy in Tuscon and I have gone between crying (the picture of 9 year old girl who was killed gets me every single time) and being enraged. I have also been encouraged that the pundits are actually talking about mental health issues. Mostly though, like many things in my life, I filter all information through my school psychologist lens.

I see kids all the time that could grow up to be Jared Lee Loughners. I can see them in elementary school. Their problems become more pronounced in middle school. In high school, they are often hidden in the crowd, or check out of attending school altogether. As a school psychologist, I have counseled kids who have witnessed shootings. I have counseled a teacher who was held up at gunpoint out front of our elementary school. I have pleaded with parents to take their child to a psychiatrist because of the danger to themselves or others. I have confiscated guns and knives from the backpacks of children. I even worked with a kid who later ended up murdering someone. And I have involuntarily committed children and adolescents who I knew posed an imminent threat.

Identifying troubled students is easy. Providing them resources and follow up care is hard. So often I sit at support staff meetings and the list of students who need counseling is far greater than our resources. I only have time to counsel about 5-10 students a year with my current case load. Many students are referred out to agencies, but the follow through by the families is often poor. The average ratio of school psychologists to students at last measure in 2000 was 1:1500, with the median being 1:2500. In some cases, it’s 1:5000. What can we do when we have thousands of kids we are responsible for and we are likely on a school site only one or two days a week?

I can’t imagine that Jared wasn’t ever referred for help in secondary school. Even if he had a late onset of mental illness, the community college certainly was aware of his needs. But like K-12 education, community colleges don’t have mental health resources either. Our new California governor’s budget protected K-12 to some degree, but slashed post-secondary education. Schools are the access point for so many students in need. Imagine if we had the resources to serve students with mental health needs. Could adequate mental health services have prevented this shooting? Unknown. Could it have lessened the chances? Probably.

I should note that predicting who will become a violent offender is a difficult business. It is especially hard to predict because of the rareness of the events. Statistically speaking, rare events are harder to predict (earthquakes, anyone?). There are far more students in need of mental health services that are not going to go on to shooting innocent people if they don’t get help. But they will go on to suffer. What matters to me most is preventing suffering. Mental health issues are still thought of as personal weakness in our society, and something to be ashamed to admit. We need to start a national conversation about how it takes personal strength to seek help. We need to recognize the connection between mental health and education. If you are not well emotionally, you are not ready to learn.

As I watch the media coverage in the aftermath of the tragedy, I can only hope it sheds some light on the real issue underlying the tragedy—that our education and mental health systems are in need of support. While I’m only one school psychologist in a big district, big country, big world, I know that if there were more mental health providers helping me reach troubled students, we could make a real difference.

The real challenge is for politicians to stop talking and start acting. Reverend Al Sharpton hit the nail on the head today on Meet the Press. He said that Martin Luther King, Jr. had concrete goals and legislation in addition to his overall civil rights beliefs. Without concrete, tangible goals, he would have only been a dreamer. I’m just left here, with my empty coffee mug and dreams of adequate mental health services in the schools, wondering what I can do next.

Alert the Media. Or Else.

It's Mental Health Awareness Week!

*party balloons fall digitally down your screen if I was fancy and knew how to insert an obnoxious pop-up situation*

Shoot. Only problem besides my lack of digital balloon skills is I'm also totally late. It was actually last week. Ironically, I knew it was Mental Health Awareness Week and I totally didn't have time to post anything about it because, well, I was dealing with mental health issues all week. It's like how I am always too busy to remember School Psychology Awareness Week every single year. On any given week, I deal with the following:

-Kid I needed to test hauled off to jail
-A mom admitted she had a drinking problem
-Kid witnessed mom get shot
-Parents getting divorced and kid hitting others in class
-Young'un yoot using extreme profanity in class waaaaaaay beyond his years.*
-Two suicidal kids
-Kid caught with marijuana in class
-Kid caught HUMPING in class.

And then, it's usually Wednesday. I'm serious.

The issues aren't just at my low income schools either. Mental health issues are everywhere. It's not a problem for only poor people. I can't believe I even have to type that, but it is such a misconception that mental health problems are exclusive to "poor schools." The problems are just different in different in different communities. And no matter the kid's socioeconomic status, mental health issues prevent learning.

ALERT THE MEDIA. No seriously, do it.

In all of the dog and pony show of Education Nation week at NBC and the perfunctory back to school episode of "This Week", I never once heard them utter the phrase "mental health."** I never saw a teacher on the discussion panels and I certainly never saw any mental health professional. Oh no, all I learned from Education Week was that underachievement is all teachers' fault. Forgive me while flames burst out of the side of my face in rage.***

Where do I even begin?

Teachers are expected to be so much more than teachers. They are supposed to be teachers, data collectors, pseudo-parents, social workers, classroom managers, technology experts, nurses, psychological triage experts, specialists on disabilities and differentiation, disciplinarians, experts in their content areas and pedagogy, and basically learning magicians. Oh, and also paralegals, diffusing litigious parents and advocates.

And how are they supposed to deal with the students who are struggling with mental health issues? I mean, on the 4 out of 5 days I'm not on their school site? Um, Frederick, can you only lose your sh** on Tuesdays and every other Wednesday when Dr. B is on site? Thanks.

Oh now I'm getting all riled up. I am typing with purpose and husband is asking if I'm okay. Perhaps the flames of fury are burning him. Sorry honey. Namaste. Deep breath.

Okay, so back to my point. Kids in crisis and kids with mental health challenges need support in order to learn. Teachers need support in order to work with students in crisis. You could be the best teacher in the world, but if you have children in your class in crisis, they are often not even there emotionally to teach. And I guarantee that giving those kids the STAR standardized test isn't going to make them feel better. "Sweetie, you'll feel better if you bubble this in."

Why is mental health so absent from the conversation on educational reform? I guess for the same reason the media didn't even ask TEACHERS to comment on TEACHING. It would make too much sense. I mean, why ask the people actually doing the hard work what is working and what is needed?

It reminds me of a quote I recently read (not from my tea, surprisingly). It read: "The scientist and the practitioner both know that the tomato is a fruit, but the practitioner won't put it in a fruit salad."

Please, media, listen to us practitioners. We know what's up. We live it every day. We sit and wait, not for Superman, but for that damn printer ink we ordered in 2009 and for someone to listen to us. Do it, before I get really mad and throw my fruity tomato at you on my TV screen.


*I wish I could share, it was a doozy. I felt a little like I was in CSI: Kindergarten Profanity Inspection Unit, trying to get to the bottom of the profanity investigation. It could have been an innocent comment, it could have been hugely profane, ala Snoop Dogg. I was on the case.

**Perhaps it is addressed in Waiting for Superman. I doubt it though.

***See also: My Internet BFF ready to snap off the teacher pointing fingers in the post *Sigh*

This Week, with Debbie Downer

Husband is so great. Whenever there’s a news show about education, he TiVos it for me and we watch it together. Even on our 1st anniversary, while vacationing, he noticed that CSPAN was covering an education debate and we watched it together. He even lets me yell at the TV, and pauses for my commentary. Now that’s true love, right? So many times, I would love to hop in the TV and shake the politicians who don’t get it.

Case and point: This morning,“This Week with Christiane Amanpour” had its yearly education debate. I say yearly, because they NEVER talk about education on these shows except for the one week before school starts. Education gets the shaft in coverage on the news. So this morning, I got all excited for my 8-minute segment about education.

Then, Arne Duncan, Education Secretary opened his mouth. Allow me to summarize:

We need to do what works and not do what doesn’t work!

Randi Weingarten, president of American Federation of Teachers added,

We should start doing what works and stop doing what doesn’t!

Michelle Rhee, chancellor or DC schools:

We should keep good teachers and get rid of bad teachers.

AAARRRG. I suppose it is hard to get to anything of substance in 8 minutes, to their credit. There was some banter about teacher evaluations and student performance that had some actual substance, but if I was left with only stupid talking points. Mind you, none of those talking points mentioned mental and physical health as a component in student achievement.

*Dusts off soap box*

People. You can’t learn if you don’t feel well emotionally or physically. You can be the best teacher in the world, but if your students come to you with trauma and bad health, you have a greater challenge. Poverty is no longer a sentence for underachievement, but it certainly makes things harder for teachers, who have to be teacher, social worker, mom, educator, and advocate. What is the incentive for teachers and school psychologists to work in poorer schools, with less resources and more challenges? I mean, other than the obvious great sense of civic pride, social justice, and great cocktail conversations (e.g. “Today I talked a kid with a knife down from a flagpole. How was your day?).?*

*Sigh*

The politicians just don’t get it. They aren’t at the schools every day, trying to close the achievement gap from a janitor’s closet or shoddy classroom with outdated computers that don’t print, and no materials or support. Wake up, people. As my dear Internet BFF Mrs. Mimi says, “You can’t fire poverty, so they fire teachers.” Are there crap teachers I wish would go away? Yes. Are there super teachers who should get paid CEO salaries for all they do? Yes. But blaming the teachers is not right. So, what should we do? I don’t want to be all Arne on you and say “let’s be innovative and do new things!” and have no substance.

My answer is simple and biased.

In high poverty schools, hire more mental health professionals. It’s a simple Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs situation. If you don’t have your primary needs of safety, food, health, and belonging, you are less free emotionally to learn. Think of a time when you just found out a friend or family member died. Maybe you have a time in your life when you were a victim of a crime—think of your emotional state. Or even think of a really difficult time in your life when you weren’t sure if you could pay your bills. Did you feel free to sit down and read a novel for fun? Were you inclined to do algebra algorithms to soothe yourself? Or did you need support from another human being to get back to functioning normally? Well imagine you are a kid with trauma or worries and you don’t have strong coping skills or an adult to support you. You are not ready for learning. Often, our teachers in poor areas become de-facto counselors as well as teachers.

I am always struck by the contrast between my poorer schools and my more affluent schools. Each year, I return to school by going to my multiple sites and sitting in on professional developments. Year after year, in the poorer schools, we talk about sparking motivation and a sense of safety and belonging in students, and we try to garner outside resources we could pull in to help our students. In my schools in affluent neighborhoods, we talk about new composting programs, new PTA-sponsored programs, and how hard it is to show improvement in test scores when the majority of the school is already at the top.

Is anyone else depressed? So sorry to be all Jonathan Kozel on you. I’ll leave you with this palate-cleansing image:



Now, we go forth and do the good work that we know makes a difference. Even if our test scores don’t always show it. Oh, and grab yourself an awesome spouse who lets you rant about education all the time. It really helps.

*Awesome side note: At my reading for The Teachable Moment, a presenter overhead an audiance member say, "Wow, I had no idea school psychologists were so...gritty." Spread the word. We are full of courage and resolve. Also, covered in grit.

Yes We Did

Question: What could possibly make 2 and a half million people stand in subarctic weather, crammed together for 6 hours waiting for a person to speak for 18 minutes?

Answer: The inauguration of Barack Obama!

I have never been so cold and so happy at the same time. Going to deliver my students’ letters to Obama was the best idea. I think my students had the sense that I would be able to trot up to Obama and hand over their letters. Try explaining symbolism to 11 year olds, it’s tricky. I simply told them, I would do my best to get them to him. And I did.

My fiancé and I traveled from California on a red-eye flight and took a bus to a train to a 20 minute walk to our hotel in Maryland. We promptly plopped down our stuff, and spent a few days before the inauguration taking it all in. Everyone was in such positive spirits. Strangers cried and hugged each other, at the simple mention of what was to take place on Tuesday.

The day before, we walked miles and miles to get to the White House, to take pictures for the students of me with their letters. There was a chant-leader guy from (where else?) San Francisco, leading groups of people who walked by with chants of “Bye Bye Bush!” The White House was actually blocked off because someone had earlier thrown a shoe over the fence at Bush (the kids loved that part, by the way). So we settled on taking photos by the Washington Monument and mailing off the letters from DC. Thanks to the wonders of the “internets” on my phone, I sent the picture right to the classroom.*



The day of the inauguration, there was a pilgrimage of sorts from Maryland that involved a broken down Metro, hours of walking through throngs of people and National Guard people and Secret Service and volunteers trying to direct us where to go, and a stealth mission through a small space between some port-a-potties to get in.** We had to, as each entry point to the mall, we were told it was full. We ultimately got in and spent the frigid hours waiting for Obama getting to know the people around us. Hey, we had like 4 hours at that point, so I made them start with their birth and move forward from there. My fiancé taped everyone around us about what the inauguration meant to them. When he puts it together, I will be showing it to my class.

I will not lie, this inauguration experience will become more and more fun as I mentally erase being cold, tired, and cramped for hours on end! I am actually amazed that there were zero arrests, given the circumstance. That is how positive and overjoyed the crowd was to be there. People who got fussy were quickly redirected to be positive. I even overheard one teenager admonish his friend who was being pushy and kind of rude, “Don’t make me kick your ass on Obama Day! We Are One, remember?” and the crowd erupted in laughter. Nothing could spoil our moment. And the second Obama came out, it was all worth it. I just hope the goodwill and hopeful spirit continues. Any time I need a reminder, I will read the copies of my kids’ letters. Especially this one.

Dear Mr. President.

I have a question for you. What does it feel like to be president? I would like to get people off the street. Because everyday when I go to school I see people sleep on the street and it just breaks my heart to just look at that it just makes me cry. I want to put up more buildings more houses and stop smoking please for everyone. When you are on a stage you can tell people to stop violence.

Sinderely,

Jacob

p.s. may be your family can please come to my house. I would be happy and then my family and I could meet you. If you receive this letter please write back.

I hope he does. Even if it is a form letter, it would mean so much to my students to feel like their new President is listening.


*I think years to come, I will be telling the tale of inauguration weekend, and my future children and grandchildren will look at the pictures and be puzzled as to why I look like I am in Russia. So maybe the faux fur hat was a bit much, but I don’t care that I looked like I belong with Dr. Zhivago, it saved me from hypothermia!

**Quote of the day: "We have been through so much crap today to get here. Literally."

My Media Darlings

It turns out that once you do one thing in the media, it apparently catches on. Who knew? My kids and I were on the local news the other night about the Letters to Obama project. Check it out by clicking here. There is one part in which I am in the corner talking to kids.

My friend, whose wife is a school psychologist, emailed me when he saw it and said, "Great job! But why do they always put the school psychologist in the corner???" I laughed out loud because we are totally behind the scenes kind of people, as evidenced by the last two offices I have had in schools being in the back of the stage of the auditorium, literally, behind the scenes. What the camera didn't get that day was me totally tearing up when they read their letters. They were so powerful and I can't wait to take them to inauguration for the kids. Note to secret service: I sound kind of stalker-y in the piece, but just remember it's more of a symbolic getting the letters to Obama!

What My Students Think About Obama

For those of you just joining us, it has been all Obama, all the time, here at Notes from the School Psychologist as we approach the upcoming inauguration. Just yesterday, my students and I were recorded by NPR's California Report about Obama's impact on urban education. I heard it on the way home tonight and I couldn't be more proud of the kids. Click below to hear my darling students on The California Report. Skip ahead to about 7:50.







And if you want to see pictures of the students in all their cuteness, click here.

Dear President Obama...

A few weeks ago, I wrote to NPR's California Report about how my students inspired me to go to Obama's inauguration (or rather, how my students inspired me to stand in the freezing cold NEAR his inauguration!). Well low and behold, NPR was so wonderful, and offered to come to one of my schools to interview me about the students, and to let the middle school kids themselves have the radio waves to tell us all what Obama's victory means to them!

We recorded it today, and I nearly O.D.'d in preciousness and pride. Their charm was set on stun, I'm telling you. I am so proud of how well they did sharing their experiences. They were so nervous, and they did just beautifully.

So tune in tomorrow to hear some of my students talk about what Obama's victory means to them! For Bay Area people, I'm told it will air tomorrow, Friday, January 8th, at 4:30p.m. and 6:30p.m. on KQED Radio Station (88.5.) For non-local people, you can listen online on KQED's Website or download the audio after it airs.

I'm so excited for them!

Why I Am Going to the Inauguration

It's no secret that I embrace our new president for the role he can play in providing hope to urban youth. I recently wrote about why I am going to DC for the inauguration for a piece on NPR's California Report. Skip ahead to 18:00 (or about halfway on the toolbar) on the streaming audio to hear why I am flying across the country to stand in a giant crowd, in what should be a balmy 20 degrees in January, to see a speck from afar that will be our new president.



Click here to hear The California Report's series on why people (and yours truly) are going to the inauguration.



Be sure to skip PAST the yiddish singers (unfortunately, not a skill in my repertoire yet) to 18:00.

Role Models

I love bad movies. I find them to be so relaxing because I know exactly what will happen in the end. Once you get the “boy-meets girl, boy-loses-girl, boy-gets-girl back” formula, you can just relax and watch the predictable nonsense ensue. I always turn to my movie-goer friend during romantic comedies and sarcastically ask, “I wonder if they will end up together in the end?!” Or in any teen movie, “I wonder if the moral of the story will be to ‘be yourself!’”

Well this past week, I dragged my fiancé to “Role Models” starring Paul Rudd. It’s a classic tale of buffoonery in which two loser guys are court-ordered to volunteer in a mentoring program. I convinced him that I needed to go for work purposes. You know, I need to know about role models and such. I have to say, as a purveyor of fine bad movies, this one gets my Best Of 2008 vote. I actually laughed out loud on multiple occasions; I’m ashamed to say. In one such scene, the two loser “adults” begin smacking each other in the car and then two seconds later, their two kids they’re supposed to be role models for start smacking each other around for no reason.

Now it’s common knowledge that kids learn by observing and model the behaviors of those around them. But how important are “role models” anyway? Does it really make that big of a difference? I am thinking specifically of my young African American students who now have an African American President-elect. How big of a difference can Obama really make?

The research on social learning (learning by observing others) would say that the higher status the role model, the more kids will try to emulate them. That is the reason that advertisers use Michael Jordan to sell absolutely everything, including underwear, and not Michael Jenkins, your neighbor.* So will Obama’s high status job get kids interested in politics or someday running for office? Maybe, maybe not, but it will certainly give more options in role models to emulate, and that is a good thing.

*Plus, “Be like Jenkins!” is just not catchy.

Obama on Climate Control

My fiancé and I have a tradition of watching Meet The Press every Sunday to catch up on the state of our nation.* It is mandatory that I have at least one cup of coffee in hand prior to activating the TiVo. The TiVo is necessary for when we want to pause to jump in on the commentary, because we take our MTP very seriously and do not want to miss anything. We do fast forward through haters and Negative Neds/Nancys, through lately I like to hear what they have to say, so I can throw pillow and whatnot at the tele. It really jump-starts my Sunday.

Today, Obama was on, and I told fiancé that he better at least say one thing about Education to give me some hope.** After 55 minutes of his plans to save the world economy, fix our global climate crisis, and end all wars, (all perfectly reasonable goals), I nearly spilled my coffee when he also said he would make it a priority to rebuild our schools. Now this wasn’t metaphorical rebuilding, but actual rebuilding the schools to be more energy efficient, etc. On the heels of a discussion on Ms. Mimi’s blog about the ludicrous “The heat is either on or off” policy of most urban schools, I was delighted.

Presently, my school has opted for the “The heat is off” policy, which in December is not the best choice, even in California. Northern California is not the California of the sunny post card, by the way. Then again, some of my colleagues in snowy areas are in short sleeve shirts, sweltering in December, so I’m not sure which is worse. I will tell you that I feel like I’m lying to kids when I say that my office is a space where they can come to relax when it feels not unlike the arctic tundra. “Yes, it a degree back here, but doesn’t it make you feel warm inside to talk to me? No? Okay.”

Now, I am a problem-solver. I got a space heater the other day and was so excited that I was going to be able to feel my fingers as I typed, but alas, I was foiled again by 1940s building plans, because there is no electrical outlet in my office. The nearest outlet is at least an extension cord or two away. The good news is, no one will be able to sneak up on me in my office, what with my new trip-wire in place.

Fourty-four days and counting…c’mon Obama, don’t let us down.

*Oh how we miss Tim Russert. In case anyone was wondering, we approve of David Gregory as a replacement. I realize no one was wondering. I just wanted to put it out there.

**Hope. So hot right now.

Sign of the Times: Obama in Education

As I walked to my school in the heart of the inner city the day after the election, I saw a sign that the day before, had GUNZ tagged on it, and it had been painted over to read OBAMA! Today, I saw a billboard that had previously been completely defaced with graffiti, covered over with posters of Obama, with “Change” written in three different languages. I don’t even have to explain the symbolism.

Recently, I did a post about how the gang graffiti at my school has been replaced by support for Obama. A spirited discussion ensued. My take was that I was excited that my students were getting involved in the political process, and I saw the hope they had for their future expand in a way I'd never seen before. In a town where there has already been over 100 murders this year, seeing any movement toward a positive change was, to me, encouraging.

Others fixated on the fact that there was graffiti, and assumed that because my students were excited for Obama, there was a pro-Obama lesson plan distributed to all teachers. Of all the messages in my post, I found it so shocking that the theme pulled out of my posting was “Graffiti is bad and gone unchecked, turns kids into juvenile delinquents!” If anyone has actually read my blog, they would know that I try to turn graffiti into positive art, and disdain the graffiti in my school so much that I made my boys group paint over it as their group project. The point I was making is that despite the manner in which they expressed their excitement, they were expressing excitement about a positive change.

The day after the election, one of my young counselees, a 10-year old African American boy who has told me he doesn’t think he’ll live past age 18 because of the violence in his community, came bounding in my office with a huge grin on his face. He said, “Dr. Bell! Dr. Bell! Do you know who won the election?” I played dumb and said, “No, tell me!” At that point he stuck his ears out with his hands and said, “I’m Barack Obama, and I approve this message!” He burst into giggles, something I had never seen before. Then, he earnestly asked, “Do you think I could be Barack Obama someday?” For a kid who has been so depressed he doesn’t think he needs to do homework because he’s just going to get shot and killed, it was so moving to see him have hope.

Whether or not you endorsed McCain or Obama, and whether or not Obama comes through on all his promises or not, it is a hard argument to make that our children of color do not benefit from having a high status role model like Obama. He has already changed the collective unconscious of our students, and inspired engagement in learning and participating in civics. I encourage everyone to watch this little boy talk about Obama and tell me that’s not powerful.