Inspired, and Defeated

I was inspired today.

My students came to me to sponsor a club - speak! - a club focused on listening to slam poetry, reading and then creating their own poetic performance. Today I heard things like, "you can't knock abortion at 16 years old unless you know what its like to be 16 and pregnant" and then "it's just like the people that don't agree with universal health care, they've had health care their whole lives and don't know what its like to pay for the ER every time you go" and then - "I don't want to play the race card, and I don't like to play the race card, but when people freak out that britney's on crack and act all shocked but then don't even flinch when you hear TI's trippin' on drugs, it's expected."

I also heard them talking about how their generation is getting a bad rap for being the generation that feels entitled. Then I heard them explain why they are perceived that way, explained their upbringing and AGREE that they were raised that way. The best part? They provided solutions.
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I was introduced to this guy - Carlos - and was inspired. And defeated.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qnl_zG2KwR0

How do I teach kids about finding the volume of a cylinder when this is going on? How do kids motivate themselves to become good at finding the greatest common factor of a fraction when someone is getting shot? Why would a teenager want to know more about the negative gravitational pull of Earth when there are teen moms struggling to buy formula and diapers?

Why do I feel so defeated - and yet so inspired? This juxtaposition is something that keeps me teaching, and pulls me toward public policy activism. I want to expose the hard truth but change the truth.