Since I teach government, it is appropriate to take some of our time to examine the ongoing political contests. I did it two years ago with the Congressional and Maryland Gubernatorial elections and I am doing so this Fall. My students are required to watch the acceptance speeches of the two presidential candidates, and probably the first debate. And I allow a few minutes each day to discuss anything else they may have noticed about the campaigns.
Our task for yesterday was discussing Obama's speech. They had been given a set of questions (which will be the same for McCain) to keep in mind as they watched. My three morning classes ended at 10:55 so they did not hear about Palin, and the afternoon classes lacked prior knowledge about her, so McCain's choice did not play a major part in our discussions, even in those classes.
Below the fold I will offer a bit of a description of the demographics of the students, and then summarize the reactions I encountered. I invite you to keep reading.
Our school is majority African-American. My three AP classes are not, being quite diverse ethnically, many of the students in these being from outside our normal attendance area but coming to us by competitive admission to our nationally known science and technology program, or able to transfer because of foreign languages we offer that other schools don't (Latin, Italian, Russian, Japanese)or because we have a stringed instrument program. The political orientation of most of the students is more towards the Democrats to begin with, and there is a strong attraction to Obama, both because of his racial background and because of his youth.
We teach Government as a 10th grade course. I have students from all 4 grades: in my non-AP classes I have students lackin sufficient credits or who failed 9th grade English who are therefore considered freshmen and I have students who have previously failed government or transferred from other states where government is taught in 11th or 12th. Only a few of my AP students are not sophomores. I am now up to 187 students on my roles, of whom 182 were in class yesterday.
The general reaction to the speech was overwhelmingly favorable. Several of my AP students raised questions about how Obama was going to pay for all of his proposals. One AP student in particular noted he was proposing hundreds of billions of dollars - 150 billion for the energy, massive amounts for tax cuts, and so on, and had not in the speech mentioned how he could pay for them. That is a fair criticism, although as both another student who is a real Obama nut pointed out he has provided detailed information in his policy proposals. The student raising the issue noted "but many of the people hearing this speech were encountering Obama for the first time and they won't know that."
In another class, also AP, a student criticized Obama for not providing detail about some of his proposals, which engendered a response that Obama had offered several dozen proposals in a relatively short speech and that there was a tradeoff: if he offered more detail about proposals he could have listed fewer proposals.
This led to a further discussion I consider productive. Students starting exploring some of the specific proposals, and why Obama mentioned them, and that led to a discussion of the purpose of the speech, and to whom the remarks were addressed.
One young lady commented on how Obama seemed to look directly at the camera when making some of his most forceful remarks about McCain, such as the one about the debate he would be happy to have on security.
On that remark, only a very few students had noticed the inclusion of the word "temperament." In my non-AP classes, none had, and only a few understood the meaning of the word. I found myself explaining that there are documented incidents of McCain losing his temper - in public, with his wife, with other Senators. Obviously I did not quote the famous remark to Cindy. I did mention the incident with Thad Cochran in two classes. I found it better to provide the following context: in 2000 George Bush was supported by almost all of his fellow Republican governors, while McCain had the support of only a handful of his fellow Republican senators, because they had questions having seen his temper.
A number of students, in all my classes, remarked on how strong Obama looked and sounded. He made a good impression on television, starting from how comfortable he seemed when coming out. SOme students particularly noticed how he used his voice: changing both pitch and intensity, how he would build up, but then lower both to build up yet again.
Many students remarked favorably on the words "this election has never been about me. It's about you." Several actually wrote it down word for word, as I can see in the papers they turned in response to the questions they had to consider. A fair number also remarked on how Obama constantly seemed to be seeking common ground, with some students noting in particular the words about abortion and immigration and guns.
Only a few had seen any of McCain's prior ads. About ten percent had seen the ad congratulating Obama. As I recall, in two classes student talked about how Obama praised McCain's service and contrasted that with some of the attacks on Obama they had seen in earlier McCain ads.
Sometimes students can be agents of influences on their parents. I remember that when Maria Shriver showed up without prior announcement to the event with her cousin Carolyn Kennedy for Obama in California, she explained how her kids had influenced her in the direction of Obama. I remember some elected officials who have said that it was their kids that drew them to consider Obama seriously. And in my politically active youth panel at Netroots Nation my former student Mica Willis pointed out that the social networks of teens often includes the adults in the family, church and neighborhood that they know - if the teens are passionate and knowledgeable they can help bring the adults on board. For most of my students, their parents are already probably pretty favorably inclined towards Obama: after all, back in February Obama took 78.9% of the ballots cast in Prince George's county, a percentage in excess of the proportion of the County whose population is Black: the county has about 830,000 people, of whom 543,000 are black and 17,000 are listed as two or more races.
I have been teaching since December of 1995. This will therefore be the 4th presidential election I have observed through the eyes of students, ranging in grade from 8th (1996) through high school. I have often found that my students are quicker to pick up on things than many of the professional pundits and politicians. I always find it fascinating to see what they notice, and how they express it.
My students are of course not representative of the nation as a whole. I have a much higher percentage of African-American students, and also of students who would be considered gifted. Still, my overall impression of the response that Obama is engendering among my students is that they are far more strongly drawn to him than previous classes have been to other candidates. Students respected Bill Clinton, but had trouble connecting with Al Gore and John Kerry. Simply put, they think "Obama gets it." And I suspect that reaction may indicate something that is happening far more broadly than we might otherwise realize. It may be indicative of the hunger among many Americans for someone who understands their lives, of a desire for something different that the traditional political bromides.
Yes, even among my students there are those who have doubts, who question if Obama might secretly be a Muslim, but the incidence of such attitudes is far lower than is shown in the polling data about the American population as a whole. I suspect that what the reactions of my students tells us is that for those willing to be persuaded, Obama is moving them in his direction. Given the huge numbers (relatively speaking) that saw his speech on Thursday, I wonder if that means that the line has been moved sufficiently that - regardless of what the polling data may be showing - the electoral advantage has increased significantly in Obama's favor? We will have to see the size of the audience for McCain's speech (which I suspect will be significantly smaller, as many Americans already have strong impressions about McCain). And certainly until we see the two men side by side in the first debate, some of the impressions people have now developed may not yet be final positions. But if the reactions of my students are any indication, Obama did himself a world of good on Thursday, thereby making it that much more difficult for McCain to move the needle to the point where he can achieve 270 electoral votes.
Peace.