“I will tell my children of this day, and they will pass it on from generation to generation and know about the first black president . And I know that he will certainly not be the last.”
essay, 10 year old Torin Wilson, Eagle Academy, Brooklyn NY
There's a great article and video in the NY Times about the reactions of sixth graders to the election of our first African American President. Pupils follow strict rules and constitute the first class at the new school, which plans to expand.
The Eagle Academy opened in September with sixth grade and plans to expand through high school. David C. Banks, president of the Eagle Academy Foundation, said the group intended to create additional schools in the same mode across the city, in seven neighborhoods that, as he put it, “generate a substantial portion of the prison population for the State of New York.” (In 2007, the graduation rate of black male students in the city was 39 percent, according to the Department of Education.) via NY Times.com
[image description: Four male pupils watch a video of Obama's acceptance speech in their sixth grade classroom at Eagle Academy, dressed in their uniforms of a light blue shirt and tie.]
2 comments:
That's beautiful. And it's dispiriting. I have such mixed feelings about this election - happy to see a black person elected President, and yet so aware of the terrible irony that this president is radically pro-abortion, when black people, and the disabled, are aborted at rates disproportionately higher than any other group in this country. The little boys in this video are lucky to be alive, as 1 in 3 black babies are aborted.
I hope Obama will be a good president. But we have to pray for the conversion of his mind soul on abortion.
What a great photo! My biracial son is very excited to have a black male role model.
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