Bold Little Swallow

Apparently, during the height of Obama’s campaigning, many African American students tested similarly to their white counterparts of a similar educational background.  This is not the first I’ve heard of African Americans, especially children and teenagers, being inspired to take their academics and careers more seriously because of Obama’s success, but previously these reports have been largely anecdotal.  Though I hate the amount of testing done in this country, how exciting to see documented evidence of Obama’s positive effect as a role model!

I would argue that he’s not only a role model for African Americans, but also for men in power (or even for women in power, considering that there still seems to be a belief that a woman must be pushy and bitchy to climb the ranks, especially in male-dominated fields).  He’s courteous, patient, reserved, and obtains his influence by inspiring others rather than fear-mongering.  One of the most obnoxious things about many male Republican candidates is their inability to remain polite and reserved while still being influential.  I may not agree with the Republican party, but at least I could respect them more if they acted with a little more decency.  Even though it may be much more difficult to document quantitatively, I wonder if we’ll see an increase in polite, reserved behavior in politics?

However, after reading some of a friend’s blog entries about government officials in South Korea, I’m thinking that maybe Republicans aren’t so bad after all …