Obama has the potential to change kids' lives

[Enrique]

Right after the election, I saw TV reporters getting reactions from kids, especially black kids. And it really struck me how meaningful it was to them. They almost looked stunned while they were talking about Obama, they were really thinking about it hard, talking about how it's going to change how they do things and look at things and work harder, etc.

And then I saw Michelle talking to an audience of black kids. They were listening like you don't see kids listening very often. Really taking it in.

Now, as president, he's trying to realize that potential, he's trying to help kids as best he can.

And the republicans have a choice. They can support him, and help him. This would help the kids. If the president is seen as a national leader then that would help his efforts.

Unfortunately, it would also help Obama politically. His poll numbers might go up.

The GOP can't have that, so they've chosen the other route. They're lying about his speech, saying it's something it's not, saying it's controversial which it's not. This hurts the kids. Obama's message to help them is undermined because the speech is seen as partisan, which it's not. Some kids miss out entirely because their parents don't let them see it.

And then there's the racial angle. The black kids see all these white people angry that Obama wants to speak to them. Why? I can see how the kids would have a hard time understanding. Why don't they like Obama? Why are they so angry? I can see them drawing an unfortunate conclusion from this sad affair.

[LynzM]

1. It would be the same conclusion that many adults are coming to.

That it's a racially-motivated dislike or hatred or fear.

You want to see how fucked-up our country, and our world, is? Try explaining it to a six-year-old. I do it with my daughter all the time, and so much of the time it comes down to:

"Some people don't think it's important to share.
Some people don't think everyone is equal.
Some people think the color of your skin matters.
Some people think that money makes you more important than someone else.
Some people think that it's not ok to love some other people.
Some people think that it's ok to kill other people."

:(

[NYC_SKP]

2. And this is among the reasons many refuse to let their kids see his address...

It might give them the impression that it was OK for there to be a black president, or one who could be honest and apologetic to other nations for our country's misdeeds, or one who could embrace non-Christian Americans.

Etcetera, etcetera...

:patriot:

[Pirate Smile]

3. It is terribly sad and infuriating. He has the potential to change how a lot of kids see themselves

and their future and these assholes are trying in insane ways to stop it. It makes my head and heart hurt.
x(

[Enrique]

5. I wish they would respond in that tone

sad and infuriating is how I see it too.

I thought Gibbs saying it's "silly season" fell way short.

I've seen Obama castigate people. Remember when Biden made a joke about John Roberts and Obama made this gesture saying, that's not cool Joe. Or what he said when he cut off Jeremiah Wright?

Maybe he will before this is over. Maybe he'll say this isn't about me, this is about the kids. What you're doing, GOP, is not cool.

[countingbluecars]

4. The big push in my school system

has been on raising minority test scores. And guess what? My school system, Loudoun County, VA. will not be airing Obama's speech. They are denying the students this educational opportunity. It is racist to do so.

[customerserviceguy]

6. While I have no problem with the President's speech

When did a president's speech ever change the life of schoolkids? I would imagine that JFK's Inaugural speech inspired a lot of Peace Corps volunteers, but it inspired a lot of people to join the military to fight Communism, too, and many of them died in Vietnam.

I just think that people are expecting way too much out of a single speech. If President Obama can truly motivate kids to study hard in school, then my hat's off to him, but I'm not holding my breath waiting for it to happen, either.

[Enrique]

7. I was basing that on those kids' reactions on TV

very different from other presidents, I thought.

But there's also some research supporting an "Obama effect" on students...

http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/labnotes/archive/2009/01/23/an-obama-effect-on-blacks-test-scores.aspx

On only the fourth day of his presidency, it’s obviously way too soon to assess whether Barack Obama’s effect on African-Americans will extend beyond providing hope and inspiration. Will he, for instance, goad black students to higher achievement, since he is living proof that working hard can pay off? One intriguing hint of what researchers led by Ray Friedman of the Vanderbilt Owen Graduate School of Management calls the “Obama Effect” suggests that maybe, just maybe, Obama will do more for the scholastic achievement of African-Americans than anything since Brown v. Board of Education.

In a paper under review at the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, Friedman and colleagues present findings suggesting that Obama might close the black-white gap in scores on standardized tests. That gap reflects, in part, what psychologists call “stereotype threat”. In this now well-established phenomenon, being reminded that you belong to a group that, according to pre
vailing stereotypes, isn’t good at something causes you to do worse on a test of that something than if you were not so reminded. Similarly, if you are told that you are being assessed on something that stereotypes say your group is not good at (“girls can’t do math”) you do worse than it you’re told the test does not (in this example) detect gender differences. It’s easier to explain by example. When girls who are about to take a math test are reminded of their sex (basically they just check M or F on a line asking their gender), or when African-Americans about to take a standardized test such as the SAT are reminded of their race, or even when white males take a test that they’re told Asians excel on, they do worse than otherwise. Apparently, students become so anxious about confirming the stereotype that their brains stumble. As the researchers write, “concern about confirming entrenched negative racial stereotypes via poor performance . . . ironically leads to their underperformance on challenging exams.”

[customerserviceguy]

8. All I know is that both Jesse Jackson and Bill Cosby

have been pro-education, but that hasn't stopped thug culture from teaching that doing well in school is "acting white".

[ej510]

9. Republicans like years of damage they have instilled in their kids and they do not want a black

man to open their minds. They want their kids to bottle the hate they've been taught.