Photo taken in President Obama's 4th grade classroom in Indonesia!
I presented there and made a little history myself!:)
I grew up during the time of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., John F. Kennedy, and Robert Kennedy hanging on the wall in every home! So I visit Indonesia (on my first study abroad trip) and could not help but notice their President and Vice President was on every classroom wall. Friends, family, and colleagues do you think that we could handle this in American classrooms? Would partisanship/bipartisanship get in the way? Would racism hinder this from happening in the United States of America? I know that not every American likes President Obama but let me tell you these Indonesian folks love him! So I have been called Mrs. Obama daily! Some Indonesians cannot speak English but they can say Obama! I wish someone would connect me with the First Family of America! Anybody...somebody please help a sister out! I am not so sure what I would even say! But back to my concern in this blog...I have digressed (as usual)! Is it possible for President Barak Obama and Vice President Joe Biden to be in your child's classroom? In your classroom? I plan to raise this as a concern at the Parent Advisory Board meeting in Ames, Iowa. Join me America and let us make that happen in a classroom near you! Think about the message(s) that it will send to a minority child!
I can see a child passing a difficult mathematics exam, a challenging spelling test, a cumulative science exam, identifying all 50 states and the capitals on a Geography lesson, and recalling the Preamble of the Constitution just because they see someone who did...who looks like them if they are African American... President Barak Obama! Generally, I do not talk about my political concerns on Facebook or in a blog....I generally leave that to my childhood friend Clarence Bucky Smith! So, I decided to connect American classrooms to Indonesian classrooms with this observation and to prepare myself for the Iowa caucus! Get your vote ready for OBAMA 2012! Are you in?
It's interesting that pictures of president & vice president in a classroom caught your attention.
ReplyDeleteI & all Indonesians are used too it we never think about the purpose and the effect if it's applied in another country.
Although President Obama was not born in Indonesia, he was raised there and I applaud a country that would find the significance of allowing children of color to know of their place in the world by placing a photo of President Obama and VP Biden in their classrooms as they study. It's a sad testament that other countries would embrace this man more than his own country, where many Americans insist in following some of the same dehumanizing methods used during western slavery and Jim Crow. By defaulting back to these noted negative social behaviors only shows the innate racism that is woven into American society and this is what some chose to 'pass down' to their American children.
ReplyDeleteRev. Yolanda Davis
I agree Rev. Yolanda....Niko never take your Indonesian heritage for granted! Others learn from it daily!:)
ReplyDelete