To All Teachers: The Best Question a Student Ever Asked Me?

In my continuing "Back to School" series of updates from past blogs, here is one to remember as the news of Mr. Trump and Co. dominate the media. 

Teachers may feel pressed by kids. This little story can help you get by...I am reprising it from two years ago when Mr.Trump was elected....

 I remember 2008--President Obama became the first American, born with an African father from Kenya, to take the Oath of Office. Michelle Obama, a descendant of slaves, became First Lady.
"What a time it was, Oh what a time it was..." to quote Paul Simon from song "Bookends"--

There was division in my classroom. The students who were freshman, in particular, merely reflected their parents' views. Some students were joyful, wearing the iconic "HOPE" t-shirt, and some murmured to each other disdainful remarks about the newly elected President.
I noticed. All good teachers take in the soundtrack of their classroom.

One day after school the question came from a 14 year old Asian boy named Andrew:

Mr. Pacilio, can I ask you a question? 
I was writing something on the white board.
Sure, Andrew.
Are you a republican or a democrat? 
I smiled.
I am so glad you asked that. I'm an American--just like you.
The look on his face tipped his hand.
That's what I thought you would say. Thanks, Mr. Pacilio.

opinion; I always presented the facts. (Yes in those days there were facts.) And as Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan remarked long ago: "Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts."
Here is the reason I was so glad he asked me that. I never gave my

I explained the facts that drove the events we studied: 
Why were black slaves treated as they were? 
Why did ghettos become the last remnants of slavery and in the 70's transitioned into gang zones selling drugs?
Why did the Japanese find themselves rounded up and 'interned' in Manzanar?
Why did the Harlem Renaissance become so pivotal? 
Why did the 'conflict' in Vietnam escalate into an 'undeclared war' under the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution that later became under serious scrutiny in the Pentagon Papers? 
Why did Affirmative Action occur? 
Why were some schools so underfunded compared to others in richer suburbs as Jonathan Kozol so poignantly documented in his book "Savage Inequalities." 
(I wish I'd spent more time on Mexican immigration...sigh.) And so it goes.


So stick to the facts and research them well. These facts will stand the test of time.
That's how I see it, here, at the Metaphor Cafe.