Day Forty-Seven, May 28

As far as Obama's world goes, it doesn't get much more momentous than today. At least not as far as this blog is concerned. Because today Barack Obama paid a visit to the Mapleton Expeditionary School of the Arts in Thornton, the school I student taught at last fall and have been subbing at full-time since January. There are countless reasons that I have stuck with MESA (mainly the character of the student body and the world-class teaching faculty), but I never imagined that this would be one of them. Friday morning the staff was informed that the visit would be taking place, the story broke in the Denver Post over the Labor Day weekend, and today, the big day finally arrived, and it was as stunning as we all imagined.

I won't divulge the full itinerary of Obama's visit, but he started off the day by taking a tour of the school (lead by MESA director Mike Johnston, with guides representing the 8th and 11th grade classes), learning more about what the school does and makes its formula so successful. One of the reasons that the Obama camp was attracted to MESA is the fact that this year it was the first public high school in Colorado history to graduate 100% of its senior class and have them all admitted into a four-year college of university. After seeing his way around campus, Obama was invited to sit in on a class of 8th graders' passage portfolio presentations, a necessary step for every 8th, 10th, and 12th grader to move on to the next step of their education. Barack listened to two students practice their portfolios in front of the class, and then gave them feedback to improve their presentations for the real deal later this week (can you imagine a better judge to critique your public speaking skills?).

At lunchtime, the hour the entire school had been waiting for arrived, as Barack made his way to the school auditorium and gave a fantastic speech on his platforms on education reform, followed by a 30-minute question and answer session with audience members. Standing before MESA's inaugural graduating class--this year's seniors--Obama spoke passionately on points such as struggling inner city schools, the lightened role of standardized testing, and the demand to reform No Child Left Behind. He repeatedly touched on MESA as a model for what inner city schools can achieve with a dedicated staff, student body, and family members to push the model to success. "Recently, eighty-seven percent of Colorado teachers said that testing was crowding out subjects like music and art," Obama said in his opening remarks. "But we need to look no further than MESA to see that accountability does not need to come at the expense of a well-rounded education: it can help complete it. And it should." During the Q&A that followed his speech, audience members posed questions to Obama to tackle some of the specifics of his education policies. One recently-graduated member of the senior class asked Obama what he would do to aid children of illegal immigrants attend college.

Here is a video of the speech Obama gave to the audience at MESA:



One hell of a way to close out the school year, no? Before he left MESA's campus, Obama paid one last visit to the most important members of the MESA population: the students. Making a surprise appearance at a final school assembly at the end of the day, Obama posed for a group photograph with the school's staff (totally in there!), before commending the entire student body on their hard work and offering some encouraging remarks to next year's class of seniors. A common gripe overheard amongst MESA students today was the fact that they wouldn't even get to see or meet Obama, so what a treat it was for them to get an audience with him at the end of the day!

Of course, if the students were excited to see Obama in person, the staff at MESA were downright giddy. And with good cause. Political affiliations aside, a tremendous amount of work was completed by the staff in the two school days leading up to Barack's visit, and being the last day of school, it would've been understandable if staff members were simply running on fumes to finish the year. Instead, I have never seen a more enthusiastic, positive, and supportive team of teachers in my entire life. As he entered the school's gymnasium to address the students, Obama shook hands with faculty members before beginning his speech (I got a quick one in while trying to salvage a decent photo from his grand entrance). As he spoke, I began to think about how unforgettable the occasion was for those of us in attendance, but also what sort of message the visit gave about Obama as a candidate. I feel that today's visit is the only proof one needs to see that Obama recognizes not only the struggles thousands of schools in America are facing, but also the triumphs that we share. In his speech, Obama remarked how students in Denver today face competition all over the world, and that a good education is "no longer just a pathway to opportunity and success, but a prerequisite ". Tell it like it is, sir. We're all ears.

It was truly a school day to remember, and one that has given me enough fuel to keep this blog going for a long time to come. I've been scouring the net to try and find as much documentation of today's visit as possible, and I've uncovered a slideshow on CBS4, a detailed write-up of Obama's tour in the Rocky Mountain News, and a glowing account of the Senator's visit on the dailycamera.com All the photos I captured with my digital camera came out pretty blurry (or too far off to be worth a close look), but if I can get a hold of some better pictures, I'll post them.

What a day!