NurtureShock

I'm reading a book about parenting and early childhood education called NurtureShock by Bronson and Merryman. They are trying to sort through the latest science on children's cognitive, social, and emotional development to debunk the myths we have about our natural parenting instincts and things we take for granted about childhood. It's fascinating. I also just discovered their blog at http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/nurtureshock/default.aspx and I think I'll be a groupie. It's fascinating.

I especially liked the entry where Merryman told the kids she tutored that if a friend accused them of acting white they should say, "No, I'm acting Obama."
This is her story:

I've been tutoring poor minority kids in urban Los Angeles for more than a decade. In that time, more than one kid has told me that they refused to "act white." They've told me that only white kids did homework; they didn't need to go to school. I've been bewildered as middle school kids have insisted to me that they were proud of the fact they couldn't read, because that proved they were real blacks. (I argued with them on this, but they weren't listening.)
All of which is why, within hours of President Obama's inauguration, I had developed a plan. I went around telling all of my tutoring kids that if they were doing their schoolwork, and someone ever said they were "actin' white," I wanted them to say this in response.
"No, I'm not. I'm acting Obama."
When I first said this, the kids acted like I was from Mars.
"No, seriously," I insisted. "Do you think Obama is walking around the White House like," I started flashing gang signs, "Yo - yo, Con-gress, whassuppp??"
At which point, they were laughing.
"All right, then. How do you want to grow up to be like? The thugs on the street out there on the corner, or Obama?"
"Obama."
"Then let's start acting like him then."
I had no real illusions that I could singlehandedly change the kids' mindset on this, but, still, it was worth a shot. And I figured it couldn't hurt.
A month later, one of my tutoring kids came bounding into Tutoring ─ he's a Hispanic seventh-grader who really struggles at home and school, .
"Ashley! Ashley! I have to tell you something!" he yelled.
I'd never seen him this exuberant before.
"OK, what?"
"A couple days ago, there were these three boys at school. And they were all like, 'C'mon, let's ditch. Let's go do something fun. This is boring.'"
"Yeah?" my eyebrow raised warily.
"So I tol' em, 'No,' and they said I was actin' white, and so I said, 'No, I'm actin' Obama' ─ just like you told me to."
"You did!?"
"Yeah! And they were all like, 'Well, OK, then,'and left me alone. So I didn't ditch that day."
"I am so proud of you!"
"And the other boys didn't ditch neither! We all stayed."
"I am so proud of you! Of all four of you."
"Me too!"
Seriously, at that moment, I didn't care what the president ultimately accomplished with the economy or health care or anything else. Because, on that day, for those four kids, the world had already changed.