The Pace of Change

Did you all catch the VP debate last week? I was a bit disappointed. Poor Gwen Ifill couldn't do much more than she did, I guess, given the rules set up by the campaigns (no follow-up questions??). I saw her on Washington Week the day after the debate and she seemed to have really hated the experience; at least, she was very relieved that it was over. As is the McCain campaign.

The 8th grade Humanities teacher at my school gave students an assignment to watch the debate and write down "Wow Statements" for each candidate on issues that the students themselves selected. Not surprisingly, in my reading group the next morning, many of the students had not done this homework (though they said they had watched the debate; not sure if that's true), so I took the opportunity to talk to them about some positions. One we discussed was gay marriage. Three years ago, when the issue of homosexuality came up in my then-reading group (7th graders), the mood was overwhelmingly anti-gay; the Bible says it's wrong, that's sick, I wouldn't be friends with someone who is gay, etc. The year after, I had many of the same girls (as 8th graders), and they showed a little more tolerance. One girl talked about how her uncle had come out and how that had changed her attitude about gayness.

This year, in talking about gay marriage, the girls explicitly connected homophobia to racism, without any prompting from me. We talked about visitation rights and they clearly said that they didn't think that was right. They were pleased that Biden believes in equal rights, and even went farther, saying you should be able to marry whoever you want. One girl said she was sorry for gay people, showing a level of sympathy that I never expected from her.

We still have a lot of issues around homosexuality at the school. Kids start rumors that other kids are gay, which hurts a lot. Then there was the absolute disgust that one 7th grader expressed to me about the flyers around the school for a Gay-Straight Alliance meeting. Maybe it's also true that the school itself, rather than any broader community, alters students' attitudes somewhat.

My data pool is ridiculously small, so obviously, any conclusions are far from robust. But I'm willing to take it as reason for optimism.