Students Voice Economic Woes, Catch Obama’s Attention

TOM WAITS (singing):

So hold on, hold on.

MICHAEL STEINMAN, teacher, Village Academy High School: I'd say the American dream is changing. You know, in the past, kids wanted material. And I think now it's more making sure we get through this together.

JOHN LARSON:

If you want to hear something new about the economic downturn and something encouraging about the American spirit, listen to this high school teacher.

MICHAEL STEINMAN:

Everyone has to kind of roll their sleeve up and work within their community to help one another.

JOHN LARSON:

Michael Steinman teaches advanced placement language arts at Village Academy High School in Pomona. Built in an abandoned department store in a shopping mall, Village Academy High is nonetheless a state-of-the-art public high school.

MICHAEL STEINMAN:

The American dream changed. Is it different now? Is it more about ideals or opportunities?

JOHN LARSON:

So you were reading "The Great Gatsby," and you were talking about the American dream.

MICHAEL STEINMAN:

Well, usually when you talk about the American dream, kids are into material possessions. They're into cars and jobs.

But when I asked them about how their lives were going, they just came alive. They all had a story, whether it had to do with parents losing jobs, foreclosures, everybody had something, and they were very impassioned in telling the story.

JOHN LARSON:

So the teacher asked his students to write anonymous essays about what the current economy was doing to their families, essays which took his breath away.

MICHAEL STEINMAN:

And the stories I read were just absolutely riveting. I read about students who were living in little house trailers behind houses, who were eating meager amounts of food.