Voices from the Flats – Thoughts on the President’s Speech from a Title One School
20 09 2009This submission came from a Mudflats reader who wishes only to be known as Mudflatter N. Mudflatter N works in an elementary school, and offered this post as a way of sharing her experience showing President Obama’s recent address to a group of 9-12 year olds.
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I work in an elementary school with a population of over 400 students. We are one of the Title One schools in the community where I work. Our school is struggling to meet the standards of the No Child Left Behind Act. All of our students qualify for the free lunch program, some are homeless, most are living in poverty. Our student population is from diverse backgrounds. Some of them come from families that are longterm residents, many are from immigrant families. And many of our children, like our new President, come from families that are mixed racially and culturally.
During the week after President Obama’s speech on education I had the opportunity to show the speech to a number of students ranging in age from 9 years to 12 years. The student assignment was to write down what they thought was interesting, what they wanted to remember and to also listen for any way in which the speech could be improved. We are practicing notetaking and critical thinking skills.
In our school we only received calls from one parent with concerns about showing the speech, and since her children were in the younger grades, it didn’t effect our lesson plans. However, to my surprise, in one class their were two girls who both said they were not allowed to see the speech. I kept my most diplomatic face as I found another room for them to stay until their class was dismissed. I couldn’t help but notice how extremely uncomfortable they were when they asked to leave, they seemed genuinely concerned that they might go against their parent’s wishes by hearing the speech. I wondered what unforeseen consequences their absence might have, how they will interact with other student in conversations about Obama, and how they will regard him for the rest of his presidency.
In preparing to write about the responses of our students to the speech, I was tempted to go back and read their notes, but in the end have decided that those notes belong to them, and I can only fairly share my own observations. And what I observed most of all was that there were key points in the speech that caught the attention of different children around the room. The typical childhood expression would suddenly give way to pensiveness at the story of the foster child who made good, the point where Obama talks about his own childhood struggles, or when he shared that he had made some mistakes of his own and sometimes felt lonely as a child. When President Obama said that bad behavior doesn’t make you bad, bad grades don’t make you stupid and similar statements seemed to catch their ears as well. The more ‘advanced’ students seemed to listen most intently to the President’s encouragement about what today’s students might contribute to the future. Others seemed amazed to learn that J.K. Rowling was rejected numerous times before Harry Potter was published and listened with interest to how many times Michael Jordan failed before making good.
Considering that this was a speech, not a movie or an animation, the degree of interest and attentiveness was pretty high. As they finished up their notes, many of the students, and not always the ones I might expect, showed me one, even two pages of tightly written notes. One of the fourth graders asks me to xerox his notes so he could take them home to show to his mom. I glanced over his words, and found he had accurately captured many of the significant statements, the overall tone and theme. Not bad for one of the kids who is always on the edge of trouble.
The degree of writing by third grade students was a bit less, but sometimes more creative, tending to a smattering of writing intermingled with drawings and sketches. One of our third grade students in particular is almost always distracted and distracting. Seemingly operating under a whole other reality, he often wanders around the room at the oddest times, tuned into his own sense of what is appropriate behavior. During Obama’s speech he and a couple of other boys his age occupied their time by drawing pictures of Obama at the lectern giving his speech. At my suggestion, my wanderer did a second picture depicting Obama at the moment of one of his signature hand gestures. The drawings weren’t exactly the type of notetaking I had in mind, but the attention to the subject matter was complete. At the moment that the class was ending, my wandering student surprised me. As the class prepared to leave, and the video was ending as Obama was shown shaking hands in the crowd, I see my young friend, poised next to the screen in an attitude of concentration. Pencil in hand he faithfully records the words on the screen which gave the location of the speech and other pertinent information. It was time for the kids to line up and leave, but I am grateful that I realize what he is doing before interrupting his moment of concentrated effort. Not bad for a little guy who doesn’t seem to be paying attention, he definitely knows how to locate relevant details. It might be worth noting that my young friend is from one of our familes whose parents have immigrated from Africa.
In the weeks to come we will continue to talk about our goals, a theme I had adopted before any knowledge of the President’s speech. Even with the follow up and continuation of the theme, I may never know what impact the speech may have on the future of our students. I do know that in the days that I watched the students’ engaged faces listening to someone significant talk about succeeding in school and putting it in the context of things they often experience for themselves, I saw a series of small miracles. Somehow I feel a little more confident about how well our students will do this year.
September 20th, 2009 at 11:09 AM
Thank you for sharing your insights. It’s encouraging!
September 20th, 2009 at 11:10 AM
Thank you. That made my Sunday.
September 20th, 2009 at 11:14 AM
Wonderful words to read!!! Thank you for sharing!!
September 20th, 2009 at 11:24 AM
Your students are blessed to have you. My grandsons who are in well to do school district outside Dallas, watched it at home with their Moms.
September 20th, 2009 at 11:34 AM
Those kids are so lucky to have you as a teacher. Thank you.
September 20th, 2009 at 11:41 AM
thank you, mudflatter N. astounding results. teachers like you are my heroes. may blessings follow you and those beautiful, young souls. i am seeing a difference in comportment in the young black and brown children in my neighborhood since the president was elected. they seem to want the approval of their elders and they smile when they get it. last week i was coming home from a friend’s house. i saw three young ones coming toward me. one of them had a bottle of pills they had found and had succeeded in opening. i stopped in front of them and speaking quietly but firmly i said ” Son. may i see that bottle? come here to me. and come to me they did. together we looked at the label and at the pills which had an assortment. i explained that the pills were vitamins for senior citizens and what looked like high blood pressure medication. i told them the pill were dangerous for young folk and asked if might have them since i am old folk. they gave them to me willingly and as they walked away the one who had found the pills turned and said “you have silver in your hair but you not old.” i laughed and said “thank you son”…bubs
September 20th, 2009 at 11:42 AM
Thank you for teaching our children.
September 20th, 2009 at 11:42 AM
Thank you for sharing this experience. Your students are fortunate to have such a caring teacher. I know you are not alone, that there are many more teachers like you in school systems all over the country. Now if only more parents were as thoughtful and caring as you are, the children in this country might have a better chance of making it in these unsettling times.
September 20th, 2009 at 11:43 AM
what a fascinating insight into the minds of children……thank you. when i listened to the school talk by obama, it reminded me quite a bit of my own father and that made me think that the kids were getting a good ‘talking to’.
straight talk from the big people about what it takes to be successful in life and how to work with what you have at hand is extraordinarily important.
glad they listened. would love to know what they remembered 20 years from now as they teach their own children at this age.
September 20th, 2009 at 11:55 AM
Thank you for sharing your wonderful experience of the kids in your class, Mudflatter N – it’s a great read and warms my heart. Thank you.
September 20th, 2009 at 12:03 PM
Thank you Mudflatter N. I wish we had more of you in our schools. And when this country wakes up and sees how important the people who teach our future generations are, maybe we will value the the Teacher, and pay respect and salary, accordingly.
September 20th, 2009 at 12:12 PM
Thank you N. What a wonderful post.
September 20th, 2009 at 12:28 PM
I work in a city elementary school and most of my students are African-American, Hispanic or bi-racial. For me, one of the most exciting things about this election is the opportunity to show these kids that, despite being in a single-parent home, despite being poor and despite facing many other challenges, they CAN aspire to greatness. Many of the excuses they’ve fallen back on in the past are no longer acceptable because we now have a man JUST LIKE THEM in the White House!
I have been so grateful that our President has shown, over and over again, that working together, never giving up and respecting others accomplishes a lot more than fighting or being confrontational ever will. Advice about staying in school and working hard means SO much more to my kids coming from President Obama than it ever could coming from this 40-something white woman!!!
September 20th, 2009 at 12:36 PM
Is there any way you can share this with President Obama? The poor man could use some positive news instead of always being lambasted for what he does.
September 20th, 2009 at 12:40 PM
It gladdened my heart to read your post, ‘N’. Thank you for sharing!
Bubbles: That was one smart kid, to be able to look past the silver and see the gold!
September 20th, 2009 at 12:59 PM
Mona…you have a wonderful way with words.
September 20th, 2009 at 1:12 PM
Mudflatter N-
Thank you so much for sharing. This si the generation that will be taking care of us as we advance in age … Good to know some of them have a thoughtful and caring presence!
Please check out this website (www.bodytalksystem.com) in regard to the wandering student – check out the video on the cortices technique … I understand teachers do not touch students in general … students can do this themselves … it improves attention, focus, breathing, digestion, rest, discernment, ability to retain information ……
If you hav ANY questions I am happy to answer ….
Thank you for your work!!!
September 20th, 2009 at 1:19 PM
I know exactly what you are going through in trying to meet those NCLB standards, and I commend you for your work. I retired in May of this year after teaching high school social studies for 33 years. When we began operating under NCLB, we had a few years during which we really struggled to get those test scores up to meet AYP (Adequate Yearly Progress). It’s possible, but you and I know it is hard work trying to get all of the students with so many different learning styles and other factors to the point where they can pass the required tests. At the time I retired all of the schools in the system that I was working in had made AYP for 4 consecutive years. I applaud your willingness to work in middle grades classrooms. I have a master’s degree in middle grades education, passed the certification test, but never activated the certificate because after speaking with middle school teachers, I decided not to teach middle school, so I have the utmost admiration for you. Teaching is hard work and very stressful, but extremely rewarding. Thanks for sharing your experience. Good luck on raising those test scores.
September 20th, 2009 at 1:23 PM
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A President was killed the last time right-wing hatred ran wild like this
September 18, 2009 9:10 am ET by Eric Boehlert
That being John F. Kennedy, who was gunned down in Dallas, of course.
I’ve been thinking a lot of Kennedy and Dallas as I’ve watched the increasingly violent rhetorical attacks on Obama be unfurled. As Americans yank their kids of class in order to save them from being exposed to the President of the United States who only wanted to urge them to excel in the classroom. And as unvarnished hate and name-calling passed for health care ‘debate’ this summer.
The radical right, aided by a GOP Noise Machine that positively dwarfs what existed in 1963, has turned demonizing Obama–making him into a vile object of disgust–into a crusade. It’s a demented national jihad, the likes of which this country has not seen in modern times.
But I’ve been thinking about Dallas in 1963 because I’ve been recalling the history and how that city stood as an outpost for the radical right, which never tried to hide its contempt for the New England Democrat.
Now, in this this month’s Vanity Fair, Sam Kashner offers up in rich detail the hatred that ran wild in Dallas in 1963. To me, the similarity between Dallas in 1963 and today’s unhinged Obama hate is downright chilling.
[snipped]
Read the rest at this link
http://mediamatters.org/blog/200909180004
September 20th, 2009 at 1:48 PM
Thank you for sharing. It was a pleasure to read.
September 20th, 2009 at 1:58 PM
I would like to echo the aforesaid comments. It was heartwarming to read your story. I have three grandchildren here in Juneau: 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade. The two older ones stayed home TO WATCH THE SPEECH just in case it wasn’t being shown at school. I was so proud of my daughter. Both of the kids listened intently to the entire speech and then talked it over with their Mom. Thank you for what you did for you students.
We’re still hoping and praying for civil discourse to make a comeback!
September 20th, 2009 at 2:09 PM
Thank you “N” for your wonderful insight, and for sharing your story.
September 20th, 2009 at 2:14 PM
The best two words in the whole piece were in the second to the last sentence – “small miracles.” What a blessing for the students and the teacher. I think some times we all get bogged down by The Big Picture and forget that picture is made up of a bunch of tiny little pixels.
September 20th, 2009 at 2:23 PM
Wonderful in every way. The children certainly have a gift in you, but what a gift they gave you back.
September 20th, 2009 at 2:34 PM
@ Martha your comparison is on the minds of many people. That is why I am somewhat relieved that certain pundits are voicing their concerns about the racist vitriol that is being displayed.
September 20th, 2009 at 3:42 PM
Your post was appreciated and very encouraging. Thank you for letting your students listen to President Obama. I’m quite sure some will remember this and hopefully use this message in their lifelong journey. It saddens me to hear that so many children were denied the priviledge and gift you gave your students. You are one in a million, thank you for what you do. I am a former teacher and I definitely would have shared the president’s message with my students.
September 20th, 2009 at 5:28 PM
Thank you for your post, mudflatter “N” — you are doing your best in tough times, and paying attention to what the kids are “really” doing will serve you well.
bubbles, I one day hope to have your moral authority, to be able to make the younguns just come to heel like that. lol, I guess I need a few more (a very few, as you are so very young looking) grey hairs to be able to pull it off.
September 20th, 2009 at 5:38 PM
Wonderful post. Makes me think that it is not our children who are our most valuable resource; it’s our teachers.
September 20th, 2009 at 5:48 PM
Thank you Mudflatter N for all that you do. This was a wonderful post.
@martha–I share your concern. These are troubling times. What can we do?
September 20th, 2009 at 6:08 PM
Thank you your story made my heart swell with gratitude, for the difference you and OBAMA have made in this child’s life….if we can all stay strong and show support for OBAMA this time in history can be one of great advances for mankind….but I think we all have to be present and stand strong against the craziness….Thank you! ! !
September 20th, 2009 at 9:01 PM
Thank you, Mudflatter N. You are the true reason why we need Teachers. You are allowing them to think beyond the boundaries. They seemed proud to have been allowed to watch and listen to the Speech and give their opinion.
September 20th, 2009 at 11:24 PM
Thank you, Mudflatter N, and I second (third, fourth, or three hundredth) the proposal that this column and comments be sent to our President.
September 21st, 2009 at 4:59 AM
THANK YOU Mudflatter N! Standing ovation to you and teachers like you all over the world. Keep up the good work. I worry for the future of the world, until I am reminded there are good, caring professionals like you doing the hard work.
September 21st, 2009 at 7:44 AM
A Kindergartener in a title 1 school said when asked: What did the President say to you in his speech: “not to give up on myself.” Even a Kindergartener gets it!
September 21st, 2009 at 9:49 AM
Thank you so much, that was wonderful to read. The children are lucky to have you.
It is beyond comprehension that some parents wouldn’t let their children hear the President for goodness sakes! No wonder we have twisted minds in this country, with one generation poisoning the next with absolute foolishness…not even letting them learn in this 2009, what backwards mentality.
Yes, send this post to the President. He does need our encouragement, what with all the forces united against him and for the silliest reasons. I think we will see a steady progression in spite of the detractors in this 4 yr term for Obama…the children of color will be advancing and changing their attitudes to one that has more promise.
Peace on.
September 21st, 2009 at 10:24 AM
Thank you so much for being a good teacher! I especially liked hearing how you let that one kid draw Obama instead of taking notes…some kids learn differently, and some teachers don’t “get” that, but it seems like you do! Your students are lucky to have you.
September 21st, 2009 at 1:48 PM
mudflatterN you give me hope that not all is lost with teachers.I am 64 years young and My teachers always stayed after school to help someone,we even went to her home for dinner.Back then you had schools competing against each other in baseball,high jumps ect and it was part of our school day not an after school activity.Now days kids don’t get much of that at all ,so thank you for all you do for the children you do teach.There should be many more like you
September 21st, 2009 at 2:24 PM
My granddaughter lives with me and goes to school here in our district — students range from the affluent to lower middle class. When I emailed the principal of her elementary school to make sure that the speech would be shared with the students, I was told that it was up to the school district, and here it was up to the school — and it was not scheduled to be shown to elementary students. As soon as my granddaughter got off the bus that day, we watched it together on the computer. She is in 4th grade, and it made quite an impression on her too. She has been studying harder, and not complaining about homework. She also has been reminding me about what the President said. It was a wonderful speech of encouragement to our kids!
September 21st, 2009 at 2:55 PM
Mudflatter N., your account rings so true! I am a librarian, and some years ago I worked with several Title I classes from a local middle school for a summer. These were kids that many people had written off, but when they came to the library, we encouraged them as best we could to enjoy what we had to offer. We were running a summer reading program for teens, and almost every student signed up. By the end of their 6-week summer session, every student who signed up had managed to read 5 books of their choice, several had read 10 or more. I was able to give a little prize to every one of them. The next school year, I visited the school and was stopped in the hall by several of the students who begged me to run another summer reading program. When I left the library system at the end of the school year, the classes presented me with a “reading” necklace. You, Mudflatter N., are showing the kids that they’re worthwhile human beings by your care and attention. And when they receive such attention and care by anyone, they pay back with so much love. Even the little bit that I did for them came back to me many times over.
My high school freshman son didn’t watch the speech at his school; I think only one social studies teacher showed it to his class. I printed out the speech and had my son read it.