There is a reason the Wisconsin gap is so low: Milwaukee Public Schools is a complete joke. I’ve been there a number of times to work with out-of-school youth initiatives and some recent promising alternative schools. The solution would best come from alternative educational settings as I don’t know if MPS can be rehabilitated as an institution.

You may be underestimating the natural gifts of kids, in other words.

What kids will do, though, is sense our energy about something or someone, even if we don’t speak. If there’s a tremendous amount of negative energy towards something then they will notice it (or fear it) much more than if there is no energy whatsoever put upon it. So the question is, why would we want our kids to notice this man?

The flip is also true. If they sense a tremendous amount of positive energy about something, they will notice that just as much. Whichever way has more energy will win their attention, whether negative or positive.

And, because kids crave attention (we all do) they will “become” whatever we ourselves are focusing on, seeing as that we put so much attention on it.

So when you say “our children are paying attention,” you are right, they are noticing politics, but they are not noticing Steele, unless we are steadily noticing Steele.

It’s like if favorite baseball team as a kid just won the World Series, you don’t even think about the last place team other than to make a mental note that they suck.

So I would say, don’t over-estimate Steele’s impact. Do over-estimate the sensibilities of your kids.

One last point is that my video of my 4-year-old last year (http://blackfivesblog.com/?p=594), which was 100% unprompted, un-rehearsed, and un-prepared, proved that a young kid can pick up plenty of stuff on his own, just from “feeling” the energy and enthusiasm of his parents, because I know for a fact that he wasn’t paying attention to the exact words we were speaking at the dinner table.

Claude as long as this guy is shuckin’ and jivin’ in pseudo representation of us, he’s important to focus on.

This is a very important time for Black politics. Our children are paying attention. They cannot see guys like Steele as role models.

We need strong!

Whether or not you are down with the political process or not, this is not the time to say “Why so serious?”

He does hold a position that at least sounds “important” right?

Don’t underestimate his impact.

Melissa Harris-Lacewell had a theory about why Steele was nominated as the head of the GOP. The GOP saw President Obama as some sort of Superman. And what is Superman’s weakness? Kryptonite. So they theorized that:

1. Steele and Obama came from the same planet

2. Based on Theory #1, Steele would have the skill to neutralize Superman/Obama.

My theory: the GOP saw Steele as Superman, but he turned out to be the Bizzaro Superman.