Obama is My Cool Art Teacher and Clinton is My Mean Science Teacher

[AlphaCentauri]

Editor's Note: One young man can't help but compare Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama to two of his teachers from school - one who inspired him to become a better person and one who represented the worst of institutional America. Hector Gonzalez is a contributor to Silicon Valley Debug.

The youth of today are voting in unprecedented rates and are becoming a voting block to be reckoned with. They call us the millennials. We’re the kids that grew up in the 90s who outsmarted our parents, dated interracially, and whose politics defy cultural and racial stereotypes.

Young people have the ability to see through our teachers, cops and counselors – only paying attention when they keep it real. The same standard applies to political leaders, especially now, when – for the first time in American history – a women or a black man could be president.

I can’t help but compare Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama to two personalities from my school days. There was Mrs. Austin, my 8th grade Science teacher, a white woman who had this nice pearly white smile, but wouldn’t hesitate to give you a referral, send you to the office or call your parents. Then there was Mr. Gonzalez, a.k.a. Mr. G. He was my 11th grade graphics teacher – a half-Mexican, half-Filipino man that would tell us stories about the old school days, make us laugh, and let students talk to him on a one-on-one level about their problems.

To me, Hillary Clinton is Mrs. Austin and Barack Obama is Mr. G.

Mrs. Austin gave me an institutional perspective of a character that I would run into again and again through out my life – from school teachers to counselors to principals to cops to probation officers to District Attorneys to public defenders to judges. When I think of these people, I get cold chills and a sense of frustration, because they are all a part of the establishment that made me walk home from school with referrals for my father to sign or had me suspended from school. They are same people that had me in a cold white room in county jail with people whose minds were slowly deteriorating. That same establishment is the one that bombs Iraq, establishes a poor health system, industrializes the military complex, and has exploited poor people through out the world for years.

Mr. Gonzalez, on the other hand, taught Graphics so all the graffiti kids took his elective class. There was a bond of camaraderie in the classroom. Mr. G would talk to us and everyone would listen, he had gained our respect. He kept it real and spoke from the heart. He constantly reminded us that his parents were migrant field workers from Stockton, CA., and if they could make it – there wass no excuse why we couldn’t be successful. It’s not that he wouldn’t give us referrals or call our parents, it’s that he set an environment that he didn’t have to.

more http://news.ncmonline.com/news/view_article.html?article_id=45c63b8704fa6c6cd7c1ac99be43567c

[Captain Hilts]

1. We still associate female authority with teachers and mothers. We need to get past that.

Check any Trek board for what young men say about Capt. Janeway. Same thing.

[asjr]

4. Ironic isn't it? But some do not

think a female can be president.

[Captain Hilts]

7. JFK told J.K. Galbraith that because of the nature of the sex act...

women did not have what it took to be president. JKG said, "You've GOT to be kidding me."

JFK said, "No I'm not. Name me ONE woman who's got what it takes to be president."

JKG: "Eleanor Roosevelt."

JFK: "Okay, but name me another."

[Hawkowl]

11. Capt Janeway was a LOUSY captain!

It has nothing to do with being a woman. Mainly it was because the actress playing her had never been a fan of the show and new nothing of the vast and complex pantheon of Trek characters.

Ahhh. Finally the chance to debate something substantive.

[phantom power]

2. Whoa....

High school students who think they're smarter than their parents, and like hipster art teachers more than those mean old authoritarian science teachers.

Who knew?
:eyes:

[RaleighNCDUer]

17. It's authoritarian vs egalitarian.

They set the rolls that kids follow in life.

And you know what? The worst teachers, the ones who are least likely to communicate what they are there to communicate are the authoritarians.

Like the art teacher I had in 9th grade. Or the math teacher I had in 8th. Or my own father, the music teacher, who loved music with a passion but really did not like teenagers.

Their world view gets in the way of accomplishing their goals.

You get respect by treating people with respect.

[msongs]

3. the evil WHITE teacher vs the cool LATINO teacher. no racial issue injected here nt

[IndianaJones]

5. dated interacially? wow...thats so hip and...cool. nt.

[Frances]

6. Interesting

For two years I was an aide in a high school and worked with about 8 different teachers. All of the teachers were good, but they had very different personalities and very different styles.

Not all students responded the same way to each of these different personality types.

Some students responded better to the inspirational teachers; some responded better to the stick-to-the-facts teachers. That's because not all of the students had the same personality.

I'm sure that some of the students who were in school with the author of this article preferred the no-nonsense science teacher (the T types on the Myers-Briggs personality test) to the graphics teacher (the F types on the Myers-Briggs personality test).

There was an interesting article in the Washington Post talking about Obama and Hillary's different personality types. According to the author, Obama is an idealist, like Martin Luther King and Ghandi. Hillary is the more practical type. Some of us voters have personalities that "fit" better with Obama, some with Hillary.

But IMO either Hillary or Obama would make a good president. Each would have strengths; each would have weaknesses.

[splat]

8. SNL: You knew the capital of Vermont!...

after that year with the mean nuns. Your teacher's job is not to entertain you and be your buddy but to get the job done.

[busymom]

9. Thank God for my stick-in-the-mud science teacher

She was serious...she challenged me....she didn't accept any less than my best work and sometimes I hated her. But because of her, I learned to dig deep and work hard...and now I'm a scientist.

My highschool art teacher still lived at home with his mom...but he was a funny guy and everyone thought he was "cool".

[sorrybushisfromtexas]

14. I teach science too, and I am not a stick in the mud

I have high expectations, am demanding, loving, crazy. tough, and many of my students who are now in college are on track to be doctors, a marine biologist, nurses, and other scientific fields. I am often the first B they have made in their lives in my Honor classes. I just don't teach science, I to teach them to love science. I have one rule, Respect. I don't give office referrals, but by golly, don't talk when I am talking and do your work. Wouldn't she have been so much better, if she had been cool and tough.

[sorrybushisfromtexas]

10. I teach Science

and agree that there are a lot of the Mrs. Austins around. I am proud to say not in my school, I teach in a school where we try to get to know kids personally, it is in a gang area (I have a an aversion to gang wars with paint however, I just go around the neighbor hood, get permission and personally cover it up), and we are to top middle school in town. Our vice principal sent out the followin e mail the day before spring break:

"As we are frustrated, tired, exhausted, irritated, losing it, etc., and can't wait for 2:55 tomorrow, please remember that not everyone in this building feels that way. I'm talking about our students....those names and faces that keep us awake at night. Remember that most of our population is not planning a ski trip, vacation to Cancun, or extra trips to the grocery store to accommodate kids being home. Many of them will be home alone, running the streets, hungry, and abandoned. There won't be electricity, video games, or adult attention.

While this isn't our fault and is out of our control, we can control how we respond to them. Kids in poverty do not look forward to breaks from school. You are their safe place. You are where they are fed. You are who cares. Doing without you for eleven days will be torture for some of them. Regardless of what they say, you will be missed. Many times they act out right before a break....it's their anger they can't control as they feel fear and don't know how else to express it.

Just keep this in mind as you go through the day tomorrow as you say adios. "

[Hawkowl]

13. Damn.

Your principal nailed it. School was the only safe place for me when I was a kid and I dreaded holiday breaks.

[redqueen]

16. Wow... I like that e-mail.

[Dogmudgeon]

12. So this election is about having a "hip", "cool" president?

Beam me up, Mr. Scott. There's no intelligent life on this planet.

We are like SO screwed.

Can you say "more inane than bad Fred Rogers imitations"? I knew you could.

Fer sherr ... maaan.

And that isn't just your father's mustache.

Word.

--p!
Talk to the hand -- because the brain is too adolescent to handle serious decisions.

[Venceremos]

15. Brings back an ugly memory.....

We had a cool as hell art teacher in my high school. He was every kid's favorite teacher, very anti-establishment, inspirational, and so on. Only one problem....he eventually got busted for repeatedly having sex with an emotionally troubled ninth grade girl (he was 35 years old at the time).