We watched the President's speech in the cafeteria of our elementary school today.
As I was walking out of school at the end of the day, I noticed that my student "A" from last year was in tears. I asked her what was wrong, and she handed me a paper and said, "This is no good!"
The paper had her test scores from the end of year exams from last year.
"A" entered my class after only having been in the U.S. for a year and a half. Even after such a short period of English instruction, she managed to score proficient on her math CST, and come very close in language arts. This represented huge growth over her previous year's exams.
It absolutely killed me that she would be so sad about her test scores. When I had seen them this August I shouted with joy over the growth that she had made while in my class. The improvement she had made came at no small cost on either of our parts. After a young life of difficult experiences, she entered my class angry and resentful. It took a tremendous amount of strong discipline and nurturing to help her reach a place where she was ready to learn. It also took extra tutoring after school and on Saturdays in order for her to improve as much as she did.
Even so, she wasn't happy. She was so upset that she couldn't speak through her tears. As I talked to her about it, she made it clear that in her mind proficient was not good enough. She wanted a perfect score in math, and wanted to do better on her reading exam. I tried to explain to her how proud I was of her growth, and that I knew how hard she had worked last year, but she would have none of it.
Finally, I brought up Obama's speech. I asked her to remember how he had talked about the fact that you won't always achieve your goals on the first try, but that you have to keep trying. That got her to pause for a moment. I asked her to remember how he had discussed J.K. Rowling and her attempts to get Harry Potter published. I asked her how many tries President Obama said that it had taken her, and "A" immediately answered, "12."
At this point the tears were no longer falling, and she was wiping her face. She then started to tell me about another example he had given and why it was important to always try your best. Finally, I suggested that we make a deal. She would do her best to improve in both reading and math this year, and I would check in with her current teacher regularly to make sure that she was doing well. We shook on the agreement. She then gave me a huge smile and a hug, and took off on her merry way.
There were many ways in which the President's speech had a positive impact on my day today, but this is the conversation that I'll remember. No socialistic indoctrination here, just hope and perseverance.