The Inauguration

I wanted to write about the inauguration experience in my first grade classroom.  I really did, but I didn’t want to write a blog that focused on the “kids say the darnedest things” aspect of the viewing opportunity.

I wasn’t sure where to begin, so I decided to start at the beginning. In the fall, the school district organized an on-line mock election for all students: pre-k through 12th grade.  Teachers were encouraged to talk to the students (as age appropriate) about the issues, the candidates and voting rights.  A permission slip was sent home and all students whose parents did not return the permission were expected to vote. 

My students come from a mixed background of native born and immigrant families.  Many of them think that Mexico and Texas are the same place, the way that many people think that New York and New York City are the same place.  We talked and talked about what voting was, what responsibilities people who are in office have and just who, precisely, would the president of the United States be able to “boss around”.

We read a lot about the two main presidential candidates (after the primaries).  The news stories that we read came from classroom magazines and focused on favorite foods, family members and what sports they liked. First graders think that those are very important issues. 

Imagine my surprise when we walked into the mock election with the kids’ voter registration cards and discovered that the kids (even pre-k students) would be voting for president, vice president and every other elected office that adults would be voting for in November.  I had been prepared to talk about the presidential race and even the mayoral race, but I know adults who don’t know anything about the candidates running for County Recorder. The kids had to cast their ballot for each and every official before we could leave the room.  The stellar moment of the day came from Ria (names changed to protect the innocent) who is from Puerto Rico.  She cried across the room: “Which one is the brown boy? I need to vote for the brown boy because he’s Puerto Rican too!”  To this day, she insists that Bracka Omabamama is Puerto Rican because he “looks like my dad.”  Which is as good a reason to vote for someone as any when you are 6.

After the mock election, the district wide results were announced.  After the national elections, the kids knew who won but it didn’t come up often in class.  Ria was thrilled that the “brown boy” was president. 

We moved on with life in first grade and studied rocks and soil and maps.  Fast forward to January 13th. The teacher lunchroom question of the day: “Have you seen the news? Keller was in the news!”

I don’t watch the news, so if something doesn’t rate NPR, I often don’t hear about it. I asked, and was told that Keller ISD had decided that students would not be allowed to watch the inauguration during school.  See the complete story here: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2009/01/14/No_inauguration_show_for_school_district/UPI-60961231953780/.  

Teachers had approached the district to discover which news sites would be available for viewing during the inauguration and were told : ”We’re not going to view it. We’re just going to stick to our instructional program,” Lopez said. “Because there is so much technology and media coverage, we feel that students will be able to go home and view it at home with their families.”

I was stunned. The district had “viewed” the Bush inaugurations.  So, why not this one? Over the next few days, the story was picked up UPI and MSNBC and local television news. If you type into your favorite search engine “Keller ISD Inauguration” you’ll see that it was even picked up by blogs and forums not related to education at all.

The reason is that school officials didn’t want the inauguration to cut into instructional time.  After public outcry and a call from the teachers’ union and the Texas Education Agency, the school district adjusted the decision to allow all students to watch parts of the inauguration live as appropriate to class schedule, technology and age.  Essentially, that meant that in the elementary school, no one saw it live. We all watched a pre-recording of the speech only.

http://cbs11tv.com/watercooler/Keller.Independent.School.2.908144.html for the entire story.

For my students, we started the afternoon reading a classroom magazine that focused on Barack Obama’s life from childhood to adulthood.  There pictures of him as a kid, teaching and hanging out with his family.  The kids were so excited to see pictures of Barack Obama and were overwhelmed when I told them we were going to watch his inauguration on tv.

We all settled in front of the monitor and I hit “play” on the recorded feed.  When Dianne Feinstein introduced Barak Obama, my kids cheered.  You would have thought that were watching the winning touchdown at the superbowl.  Two kids jumped up and did a fist pump.  I am not going pretend for a moment that my students, who kept asking if this was going to be on tv in Spanish when they got home, understood the words of the speech. 

This I know though, they watched the moment when, as Ria put it, the man who “looks like my daddy” got sworn in.  Several of them looked at me and said, “That could be me!”  All their friends joined in the refrain, “That could be me!”

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is what I call an efficient use instructional time.