We have all gone to look for America

The past several weeks have been a remarkable journey into those little known hearts and homes of Americans-or as my case has been-into New Mexicans corazons and casitas. My government and economics class gets a real taste of it as we focused last week on "Elections: Fact or Emotion-Myth or Reality..what is really happening across the country in voter minds." As they poured over data on candidates and their records and spending, students came up on their own with the idea that "candidates who use attack ads have weak records to stand on and it makes the attacker look worse"The Congressional fight here in NM (Wilson versus Madrid) is a case in point. The students are calling it the chick fight of the decade. The students are convinced that the biggest determinant for success as a candidate now stands on where you stood and how you stand on the war in Iraq. Most of my students frequently talk about "doing more for the poor" and so we are going to read An End to Poverty by Jeffrey Sachs, if I can convince the school district to fork out the $350 to buy enough paper backs for all the students. My history and geography students are in an earlier period on the antecedents (political, social and economic) to the Civil War in the United States. "Let's talk about Civil War." When you have moral outrage and economic tension, that equals Civil War. I submit to you that those were the indicators during the time of slavery coupled with the North and South codependence in economics terms or raw goods and manufacturing, and the fragility of a new nation, you get civil war. Sound familiar? Most of my students know little or nothing about Africa. Less than .005 percent are African American and so it is challenging. One thing I hope to do is get Nelson Mandela or Desmond Tutu painted on the mural on the front of the building along with Dr. Martin Luther King, Cesar Chavez and Frida Kahlo. I am still loving the teaching despite the day to day challenges. I can see a spark in many of the students despite the fact that the constant refrain is "Oh miss, this is so boring," or "Oh miss, can't we have a free day." Food works especially pizza and with the help of Ken Burnes on the Civil War, the new biography of Harriet Tubman and my indomitable passion for expanding the horizons of young people, will shall prevail. I feel like I am making progress in the planting of ideas that will some day come to fruition.

On a totally different note, my niece, Reeve, and her family and I went to a pueblo pow wow for young children in Pojoaque. There the kids were learning traditional dance.

They performed admirably with swirls and swoops as birds would and even the littlest ones seemd destined for stardome.

One feels that that world is 'lost' or losing its power. More and more traditions are dying out and while the porcupine feathers or shell headresses may be

replaced by something different, the intent and message is still there: pride in one's heritage, preservation of customs, respect for ancestry and tradition. These photos are courtesy of my niece Reeve.