Tonight on GRITtv: what it takes to teach. Three NYC public school teachers talk about the obstacles they face, why tests are destroying creativity and critical thinking, and why your favorite teacher might think twice about teaching today. Find out why the National Education Association endorsed Barack Obama and why they’re pressuring him to shift the focus from tests to teaching.

And a fake war in the Mojave Desert. We’ll call it virtual Iraq. Jesse Moss and Tony Gerber, the directors of the film Full Battle Rattle, which opens tomorrow at Film Forum in NY, talk about their stay in the town of Medina Wasl, USA and what it says about America’s war machine. As coverage of the Iraq war recedes, a fake war and fake limbs might just bring it back home.

Where’s Karl Rove? The American News Project tries to find out why he’s ignoring a subpoena from the House Judiciary Committee for the second time this year.

Finally former president Jimmy Carter and Spearhead’s Michael Franti in the United States of Poetry, courtesy of Bob Holman and the Bowery Poetry Project, and the Federation of Black Cowboys at the Afro-Punk Festival in Brooklyn. If there’s a more charming sight than five black cowboys riding down the mean streets of Brooklyn, we have yet to see it.

And don’t forget, Live From Main Street this weekend in Miami.