There is a gospel song called "Unspeakable Joy" that encapstulates the essence of how I am feeling right now. I am incredibly proud to call Barack Obama my president. I am incredibly proud of my country. I think this moment in history reflects our country's ability to accept the call of progress. In this past election, we were presented with two choices- and I believe our country made the right choice.
This election has peered through many aspects of my own university classes and also, my classes at school. In my Developing Adolescents course, we spent quite a bit of time dissecting a Daily Show clip about women and the election. In my Methods course, we were strongly encouraged to write about the election. Most of the Penn GSE folk were in Obama's camp, so it should be of little surprise that many of these conversations were engrossed with inquiry of progress and change. Outside of class, I found myself consumed with election talk- because I was spending all of my time volunteering with the Obama-Biden campaign. All of this talk and consumption and faith, to rest on one day.
Election Day was when everything hit. I've always been of the opinion that Obama had the election in the bag, but for the first time, I felt jitters. My day started off sour when I went to vote. The line was long---- in West Philly, eh go figure. One of the machines was not working. I couldn't help but think voter disenfranchisement was happening right before my eyes. However, nothing was going to stop me from voting. I proudly casted my ballot for the President. After voting, I spent the day doing Professional Development. At first, I was salty that I had to go into school instead of canvassing for Barack. However, the PD, like everything at SLA, was great. It was surprisingly productive and enjoyable- and gave me my first moment of 'chill.' (side note: The Principal Chris Lehman is more than the on-point guy who does TedX talks and writes amazing Op-Eds; he's actually an incredibly cool person. Learned that at PD Who'dathunnkit). After PD, I went to class- and again, I was salty especially when we were told to put away computers. My President might have been losing and I had no way of knowing... thank God for cell phones. #Teachersmaketheworststudents As soon as a surprisingly good class, I went straight to Obama Headquarters on 52nd and Walnut and canvassed until 8 pm. After that, I went to Landmark (a bar) to watch the election results with some black Penn grad students.
The black Penn event was great. I really enjoy fellowship with other likeminded students. Also, the event was hosted by a group called BGAPSA and they provided FREE WINGS AND SUBSIDIZED BEVERAGES. I was in heaven. And as the election results poured in...Pennsylvania. Obama. Ohio. Obama....and the drinks poured. Screwdriver. Carona. And the conversation continued. Wharton business plans. GSE student teaching. Law school craziness... and then the announcement. CNN projects that Barack Obama has won the presidency. Absolute celebration! Jumping! Crying! Toasting! Facebooking! After a brief moment of celebration, I had to get it together and head home because I had to be at school the next day. On the bus ride back to my apartment, all I could think about was my students and how they felt about this moment. As soon as I got home, I watched the President and the 'other guy' deliver their speeches. I wrote up questions. I downloaded videos from online to show the class. I was excited.
When it came to facilitating discussion as a teacher, I thought that this would be incredibly difficult to do because I know that my students are coming from all different places and that while many of them are Obama folk, a few were going for 'the other guy.' I didn't want things to become tumultuous and have some of them be turned off. At the end of the day, most of the students were incredibly excited to discuss the election results. The discussion was incredibly mature and nuanced- I had basically scrapped my plans for the day to pursue a very inquiry-driven discussion. The students knew what they believed. They had also been observing the election for several months now and were interested in discussing the election on their terms and what it meant for their generation. I had to let that ride and just let the beauty of inquiry discussion reveal itself.
I'm becomming super-attached, lol, but the best part about all of this (for me) was hearing what the generation thought about all of this. They're still green and involved; my generation is so apathetic and removed. The intermediacy of the conversation was amazing and confirmed my belief in progress. I think that this generation symbolizes progress in many ways; I believe the next generation of voters transcends beyond linear symbolism. They are progress.
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