What Would You Do?

(Full Disclosure: Jose Antonio Vargas interviewed me when he was at the Washington Post, but never wrote that story when he was there. He interviewed me again when he was at The Huffington Post and did write a story.)

I tend not to blog about anything political here unless it's pretty focused on education, but I'm going to make an exception tonight because I found Jose Antonio Vargas's question pretty compelling:

What Would You Do?

• What would you do if you were a 12-year-old sent to America?
• What would you do if you were a 16-year-old and found out you were in America illegally?
• What would you do if you were a teacher/principal/superintendent of that 16-year-old and found out he was here illegally?
• What would you do if you got into college, graduated, and then had a chance to pursue the profession you fell in love with and make a meaningful contribution, but had to check a box on a form that wasn't true?

I don't intend to get into a discussion of immigration here on this blog for several reasons, not the least of which is it's a very complicated issue, my area of expertise (if I even have one) lies elsewhere, and nobody particularly cares about my political opinions. But I think as educators, and as human beings, it's worth our time to think deeply about this issue. Here are some resources about this particular part of the story:

My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant (New Yorker piece by Jose Antonio Vargas)

Define American  (Website created not necessarily to advocate, but to change the conversation around immigration)

Video currently featured on Define American







NPR Interview with Jose Antonio Vargas

Jack Shafer's Slate piece on the ethics of journalism

ABC Interview with Jose Antonio Vargas (longer version on Nightline but I'm not finding a link as of yet)

Update 6-25-11: Here's the longer Nightline piece:



So, again, I'm not interested in having an immigration debate on this blog, but I am interested in each of you thinking about how you define "American" and what actions you might take as an educator (or a citizen) if you discovered one of your students in this predicament.

What would you do?