Some good news about this campaign from middle school 8th graders

[erinlough]

I teach 8th grade middle school special education students. Today they were with me in our special education room and they began to spontaneously discuss the Presidential race. One student spewed out that he hated Obama. The others jumped at him and began calling him names. I was surprised and quickly reminded them of freedom of speech, and told them we should get the facts about why he was talking about hate. I told them he could tell us why he was so negative about Obama and then they would have a chance to tell him why they were Obama supporters.

I turned to him and told him that it was not right to just trash someone and that he could tell us why he was so against this candidate.......silence and then something about "I don't know, I just don't like him". The others were literate about the candidates stands, they mentioned McCain wanting to keep us in Iraq, His 100 year war comment, the price of the war to our country and the death toll of our soldiers. Then they turned to the issue of Palin and her lack of experience. Finally they said they wanted someone like Obama who was trying to uplift regular (I think they meant middle class) Americans.

I was shocked. These are Learning Disabled and Emotionally Impaired students who live in a very conservative and Republican area. They were much more informed then I thought they would ever be. We are soooooo going to win.

[Booster]

1. Sounds like you got a great group of 8th graders. I like the way

you handled it too - very wise.

[TheDebbieDee]

2. Sounds like they're all smarter than Gidget!

Are you sure they need "special education"?

[erinlough]

3. These kids are screened very carefully

and they are very mush in need of special reading and math education. A common misperception is that all areas of their intelligence is effected. My experience is that these kids have normal intelligence, just problems in learning specific sets of skills. For instance I have one student who is unable to read or write above a first grade level, however when tests are given to him orally and his answers are recorded for him he passes all classes with B's and C's.