My husband and I took in "American Teen" this past weekend, a recently released film documentary about the lives of four teenagers in small-town Warsaw, Indiana. Good stuff! The film-makers had incredible access to the personal lives of these kids. The breaking-up scenes... eek. Painful.

So, we liked it. But as parents ourselves -- and as somebody who spends a lot of time with public school teachers, both professionally and personally -- we couldn't help but notice how little the lives of these kids (at least on film) had to do with their families or teachers. There was one brief classroom scene -- and, let me tell you, it didn't exactly flatter your colleague. (Honey. Yes...you. Put down the People magazine.) And the parents? Well, I cringed when one momma says to her desperately needy daughter, "You are not special."
Aieee. The sad truth is, I think, that high school life for a lot of kids doesn't have that much to do with actual school. Except for the occasional basketball game, prom planning, and college application -- at least for these kids.

Thumbs down to that.

Not That We Weren't Already Hoping for a Strong Economy

In its August issue, popular fashion and lifestyle magazine Elle asks celebrities and media types what job they would fall back on if they lost their current gig in the faltering economy. The "Recession Confession" feature caught our attention when we got to Fox News talking head Bill O'Reilly. His fallback job? "Teaching. I used to teach high school history and English." O'Reilly might have some explaining to do should he ever find himself back in a public school teachers' lounge.

Two years ago, O'Reilly glommed onto a misleading Wall Street Journal editorial to unfairly blast NEA for donating to civil rights, minority, community, and advocacy groups. That same year, after an ABC "20/20" report by John Stossel accused the nation's teachers of being mediocre, O'Reilly's show, "The Factor," came to Stossel's defense, saying that U.S. children "seem to do worse the longer they remain in the system." And last October, O'Reilly opined on his show that "most teachers--high school and college in the United States--are left-wingers," who "bring in a anti-American viewpoint" to the classroom. (That left-wing claim alone no doubt came as a surprise to the 1 million NEA members who are pro-public education Republicans.)

The only way we'd want to see this ever happen is if rival Keith Olbermann of MSNBC has the same fallback plan and the two have to team teach. Heck, they could even co-moderate the debate team.

Obama Can Help Unite Latino and Black Voters

Hispanic registered voters ranked education as the number one issue of the fall election while supporting Democrat Barack Obama for president over Republican John McCain by 66 percent to 23 percent.

According to a nationwide survey of 2,015 Latinos conducted by the Pew Hispanic Center (PHC), respondents also indicated a dramatic reversal in Obama’s status among Latinos from the primaries, when he lost the Latino vote to Hillary Rodham Clinton by a nearly two-to-one ratio.
This might be the most important finding by researchers because it proves that Latinos can and will support a Black candidate for president.

“Latinos want to be supportive,” says Roberto Chavez, Interim-chair of the NEA Hispanic Caucus. “Closing any gaps that might exist between Blacks and Latinos is crucial to winning the election.”

In the survey, three times as many respondents said being Black would help Obama (32 percent) with Latino voters than said it would hurt him (11 percent). The majority (53 percent) said his race would make no difference to Latino voters. At 46 million, Latinos represent about 15 percent of the U.S. population.

Chavez agrees that the candidates’ ethnic backgrounds are less a factor than where they stand on the issues and how they choose to reach out to the Latino community.
“Visibility is number one,” he says. “Obama needs to come into our neighborhoods and talk with us. He should, for example, commit now to appointing Latinos to his Cabinet and the White House.”

In addition to education, Latinos prefer Obama’s views over McCain’s on other issues, such as jobs, healthcare and immigration, according to PHC, a nonpartisan organization that researches the growing U.S. Latino population.

“Obama can do a lot to bring Latino and Black activists together,” says Chavez, a fourth grade teacher at Greenville Elementary School in Santa Ana, and a member of the California Teachers Association.

In a recent Gallup poll, Obama is leading McCain by 30 percentage points among Latinos. Although Latino turnout is lower than for other ethnic groups, they could be crucial in November because of their numbers in the battleground states of Florida (where Latinos make up 14 percent of the state’s eligible electorate), Colorado (12 percent), Nevada (12 percent) and New Mexico (37 percent).