Dad's Christmas "Pa Package"

Mom's Christmas "Pa Package" (see Christmas posts for explanation)

There's something to be said for democracy. Granted, this is all coming from a Government teacher, but I wasn't always a government teacher and I'm really very new at this. Some pretty darn cool things happened today. The last one has to do with that old fashioned democratic feeling.

Pretty Darn Cool Thing #1--After stressing out most of the day because I didn't have anything for my gov class, I had a wonderful lesson (but it wasn't me...it was Rob who came up with it). The dilemma was that to be able to accomplish what I want to accomplish next week, I needed today. BUT...like I said yesterday, my students all flocked to the feet of Obama so I didn't know how many of them to expect. It stressed me out. I didn't know whether to use the day or not. I don't want to use the day and have half the class miss out, but I also didn't want to not use the day and have the half that came to school feel like they should have skipped. Plus, I didn't know how many would be there, and it was also an assembly day so we had a short period and I had this feeling that, with the weird day, and with their classmates gone, they would probably be kindof lazy anyway...In the end, I stressed out until lunch and was at the end of my rope when Rob said, "I've got an idea." It was amazing. Seriously amazing. I didn't have to plan anything but it was one of the most fun application lessons I've ever had. Rob had this collection of strange (like a black and white picture of an old man with a monocle holding up a cabbage and grinning) photos by a British photographer. Basically, I put a bunch of these pics around the room and the kids rotated through and they had to find something in or about the picture that reflected something we learned in the unit. It was great. If they really knew their stuff, they'd find something in the picture to explain. AND THEY DID!! It was awesome. In a picture of three chefs and a bunch of pies they saw the primary and caucus system. Each of the chefs had the same clothes on and their heads were hidden behind the delivery window. The kids said that the chefs were like the candidates. They are all close to the same, different body types but really...all very similar. They are all with their hands into the electoral pie. The pies represented the different states having their primaries or caucuses and the pieces represented different proportions of the vote that the candidates are waiting to get. I was so impressed.

Pretty Darn Cool Thing #2--After the day was over, I was exhausted. I fell asleep at my desk and was awoken by raucous laugher and, "Go home!" from Keith, my next door neighbor. While I was shocked out of my slumber and still staring at my laptop, Keith gave me 10 minutes to leave my classroom, tickled to death that I had fallen asleep and had woken up completely disoriented. I was so tired...but...I was torn. My students had skipped. I had about half my students today. The other half were standing outside Key Arena waiting to kiss the feet of their idol, Barack Obama. Can you believe over 20,000 people were at the Key Arena today to see Obama? They had him playing on the TV at lunch! My students came back and said that they didn't even get into the stadium, there were so many people! (Some did get to see him because after he had finished his speech to the 20,000 inside the stadium, he came outside and gave the speech again to the 500 outside the stadium). I tell you, those kids are smitten. BUT ANYWAY...that's not what was so pretty darn cool. Since they had gone to see Barack Obama, part of me felt obliged to go and see McCain. He was going to be in Seattle, 15 minutes from my house (well, much longer with traffic). But I was tired, and it was Friday and traffic today was the worst it's been in years (the guy on the radio said so) since there were all these political rallies! Plus, I was unable to find a single conservative person in my acquaintance to drag along. Anyone who knows me well knows I'm deathly afraid of people and horribly afraid of doing things by myself, especially when I don't know what to expect. But, that's the pretty darn cool thing #2, I went to Seattle, when I was tired, when I didn't know what to expect, ALL BY MYSELF!! You have no idea, I am so proud of myself. I figured, I'm a govt teacher, and McCain is here, not very far away and whether he becomes President or not, he's an important figure in our country. I've known about him since high school, before I knew him as a Presidential candidate. Plus, I figured, there's no way a Republican candidate would draw the kind of crowd that Obama drew, so I might actually have a chance to shake his hand or at least see him.

Pretty Darn Cool Thing #3--There were a couple hundred people there, and I didn't talk to anyone because it was sortof weird, but I saw John McCain! I also saw Dave Reichert, our well-known Congressman, the Attorney General of WA, and other important old Republicans (which, was pretty cool). I was pretty close to the front so I was about 10-15 feet from him. I could see his face and see his eyes, and when he was leaving the room I just couldn't make myself plow my way through because the media was attacking him and the only way to get to him would be to draw the attention of the media and I didn't want to do that. But at that point, he was only 2 people away and it was really cool to be that close. Now, I'm not crazy happy about McCain. Tonight there were very definite times I didn't clap, but sometimes I think we forget that the candidates are real people and when you're at a Republican event in a democratic state, you can actually get near the candidate and see that they're flesh and blood, not makeup and flash-photography. Oh yeah, and I got a free McCain poster for my classroom too!

Pretty Darn Cool Thing#4--The pretty darn coolest thing of the day was the old fashioned democratic feeling. In class today (during First Amendment Friday) we talked about the candidates and about the caucuses and about the fact that Washington actually makes a difference in the elections this year. All the candidates came to see us today and you can feel it, Americans (well, Washingtonians at least) care about the elections! The Primaries! It felt good to discuss. It felt exciting to think of the role we have. And then tonight at the rally, it was exciting and heartening to see all my fellow Republicans, especially since they are so sparse in this state. It was community! Mock my fervor if you will, but we were standing there, all from different places and yet...we were Americans and we were Republicans! I felt that good old fashioned democratic feeling! We were voters! We were coming together and unified! We were participating in our democracy! You could hear cheers and see nods and just...man...there was just something about that good old fashioned feeling. I know as well as any the reality of our democracy but I can't help but feeling that the good old fashioned democratic feeling has been lost by the way we do politics anymore. I wonder how much different our society would be if we gathered together for things other than rock concerts or football games. Caucuses are more difficult for participation, but I bet if govt had been turned over into the hands of bureaucrats, we'd still have more of that good old fashioned democratic feeling.

Reflection: I didn't teach the kids anything new. I didn't get to actually meet John McCain. But, I got a free poster and I felt like I belonged in a room full of strangers.

My students are flocking to Obama's charismatic fold tomorrow. He is coming to mesmerize my young students into caucusing for him tomorrow. He, of course, focuses on the easily manipulated youth, lulling them to submission with his "change" and "hope" and "reform." But I'm going to ask them when they get back whether he promised anything other than "change" and "we can do it" and "reform."

Perhaps as a reaction to my students, I have this strange desire to attend John McCain's meet and greet in Seattle tomorrow evening. Since Washington matters in the electoral process for the first time in years, the candidates are gracing us with their attendance. I don't support everything about McCain, but I do think it'd be pretty neat to see him. Whether you like him or not, he has made campaign finance reform, an issue that is very respectable, his life's goal. It's a tough issue and there are good and bad things that have come from it, but I respect the cause and I recognize that the man really has given his life in service to his country. I'd like to shake his hand, if just to say I did.

I don't know what a meet and greet is like...but I sure am in need of a bold conservative to give me confidence to show up tomorrow evening, even when I don't know what to expect, or will probably be under-dressed....or stand there and be scared to death...

But I'm looking for a bold conservative who will go with me to shake John McCain's hand so I can tell stories to my students later. hehe...and if I had enough guts...to ask him what his plans are for education (ie NCLB).

Well...you're in for a treat. Here's my story. Since my crisis last week I have stepped up my lesson plans and I must say...I have affirmed to myself that I can teach (and also realized that teaching good lessons means less sleep...but more awake students. I guess it's a trade-off). My lessons since last week have jumped into the category of engaging. Granted...I've only had a few lessons since then...but that's not the point. The point is that with motivation and some help from one of my colleagues who is helping me remember how I used to think about lessons, I can step up my work.

ANYWAY, in this process, this morning I woke up to a horrible realization. My lesson sucked. It sucked! I had this great lesson on Tuesday about Super Tuesday and the primary and caucus system in America. (What is Super Tuesday and is it really that super?...cliche, yes, but my students think cliche is funny). But on the day after the Super Tuesday results came in, the lesson I had planned was lame! So, I rushed to get dressed. On my way to school my brain was running a mile a minute. As soon as I got to school I started working feverishly on a new lesson. However, I needed computers and was unsure of getting them, so basically I wrote a new 90-minute lesson, put together my original 90-minute lesson idea just in case I didn't get the computers, and tried to piece together how to make sense of it all.

In the end, with the help of a colleague I fashioned a pretty darn interesting, informative, and curricularly relevant project for my kids. It was based on a few things: 1) My students want to caucus this weekend but can't tell me why they actually want to vote for the candidates they like (insert Obama), 2) even though it's not AP curriculum, we're in the middle of an election! They should know about the candidates! 3) I want them to apply their learning from voter behavior and public opinion, and 4) I want to introduce them to the function of parties, platforms, campaign strategy and the drifting of the major parties to the middle.

Therefore: the kids were to explore candidate websites and profiles, and make 4 arguments. 1-A) Democratic and Republican candidates for the White House are fundamentally different in their platforms. 1-B) Democratic and Republican candidates for President are essentially similar in their platforms . Then, endorse a candidate. 2-A) Burdick knows why you endorse _______. Explain it in her words, keeping in mind what we have studied over the last few weeks about voter behavior. 2-B) Now, you take the position that Burdick's evaluation of your endorsement is superficial. You are endorsing _________for justifiable reasons! Explain it to her.

We talked about how Washington actually has a say this time! (class cheered loudly) We talked about how I want them to be informed voters! (more cheers!!) We talked about how this is their opportunity to affirm their own stance if they're already decided and to think of it as self-discovery if they haven't. Overall, the kids were stoked. They were all diligently searching, not checking their email, they were talking about and clarifying the issues, and they were applying their learning (mostly by trying to pin down my vote...but hey, I was telling them I could predict what they would say, why not let them use the same process on me?).

So, that was a long intro, but I'm not done. I realized in this process that I don't know my own vote. And it was too late. After lunch today a colleague asked me who I was going to vote for. I'm the lone Republican...and I didn't want to answer because I didn't have any good reasons yet. But she prodded and it ended up being a very disheartening, hour-long conversation where I felt bullied, and disappointed that I felt so very un-Christian and bigoted. Since then I've gotten over it, because I know she just wanted to play devil's advocate. But, I got nothing done after that because it was eating away inside me.

Therefore, I have just spent the last 6 hours combing the websites of all the major candidates and essentially doing the same assignment that my students did. The result was 14 pages of notes and copied and pasted segments from their issues pages with my own commentary. They are divided into "good," "bad," and "good and bad" categories.

I have decided to include them here for your perusing pleasure. Excuse any crude language.

Hillary Clinton: Overall Burdick assessment-not as bad as I thought. She does propose to spend lots of money, and some of it seems like it won’t work. But, she does put the middle-class first, which I think is important. She does want to spend more money but it seems to be coming from the people who can pay and she does give tax credits....which look good. The part that I’m not sure about would be how it will affect small businesses and how she can get big businesses to go along. Seems like a lot of this won’t work if the businesses don’t agree…

John McCain: Burdick overall sees McCain as definitely more electable against Hillary. He has some similar views to Hillary but he doesn’t explain his health care and I’m not sure I like what he says about being so vigilant about foreign policy. I also am not sure what I think about corporate tax cuts. Other than that, he agrees with Hillary on middle class tax stuff. I also like how he wants to make govt fiscally accountable (which I believe he will do). He has a lot of experience and whether the liberals like it or not, I like his strict-constructionist stance. Let the states decide! Don’t mandate it from the federal government. Like Clinton, he too wants to limit access of lobbyists.

Barack Obama – inspiring. He seems to want to try to fix everything, but how the hell will he pay for it?! Overall Assessment: This guy is nuts. He’s so darned optimistic! He has ideas for everything. That would be good, except it’s like everything costs money and he has not suggested how to do it. I can hardly distinguish him from Hillary except for the fact that he’s got faith and he’s less mature when it comes to dealing with big issues in a logical and planned way. The ones he does have plans for are the same ones Hillary has. He seriously has plans for everything, though!! Americans with disabilities, autism, fireside chats, community service in colleges, securing loose nuclear material from terrorists (yeah, good luck with that). He wants mentoring programs for teachers, an internet database to track earmarks and pork barrel legislation. Seriously, Obama…you’re good-looking, you’ve got a silver tongue, and your website is freaking awesome, but even though you have made so many people have Hope, I hope you have a clue what to start with. Honestly, in the end…I think Obama has good intentions. If he wins…I don’t think he alone would do a good job, but he’s got so many supporters and with good advisors his optimism might be more beneficial (and in the end, have more of an impact) than any of his lovely, naïve programs will be when they don’t materialize.

Mitt Romney—seriously, his website looks almost exactly like McCain’s--same issues. Overall, I don’t like Mitt Romney. He appears to me to be a used-car salesman. He’s nasty to the others. He continually targets them in his platform and he is arrogant about the issues. I like his concept of importance of intelligence in security and working on multilateralism, improving our economic ties with Latin America, and fixing NCLB. However, I had many comments of “you’re freakin’ kidding me” to the following: Arab states should support Iraq and tell the Palestinians and Israel to get along (good plan, Mitt…good plan), building a physical and technological fence along the border, and getting rid of McCain-Feingold (total attack on McCain here…over and over) by “letting the Americans people be free to advocate for their candidates and their positions without burdensome limitations,” i.e. let me spend as much of my massive fortune on the election since I have the money to do it—who cares that it makes it so other legitimate candidates can’t run and narrows the field to the uber-rich (as if it isn’t bad enough as it is!!!!!AHHHHH!!!). This all, is of course not to mention the fact that he seems contradictory in many things; his policy on Latin America, his approach to Iran, spending limits, and taxes. He seems like the puppet of big business and that makes me sick. He obviously knows a lot about economic issues…but I think he’s looking towards the wrong answer. I would like to close this portion with my summary commentary on what was probably supposed to be an inspiring quote from Romney in talking about Latin America, “There are two spheres of influence in the Western Hemisphere. One is dark, bellicose and spreads misery by denying people basic freedoms (i.e. Cuba and Venezuela); the other shines like a powerful light, is peaceful and wants only for its people to live in liberty and prosper."—right, unless they’re immigrants or “jihadists”…(note very OBVIOUS sarcasm)

Mike Huckabee—crap, Huckabee has too many issues too…blech. Finally! I’m done! I was actually expecting to be as irritated with Huckabee now as I have been since he won Iowa. Before Iowa I saw Huckabee as a well-spoken, honest, practical candidate. Then he went psycho by throwing God around as a buzz-word. Don’t get me wrong. I like God, but Huckabee went overboard, making it seem like his one priority in the White House would be mandating religion. I admire his not backing down on his faith, but I see no need to tout it so much. Nevertheless, I actually still like Huckabee, which I wasn’t expecting. The guy is somewhat of a ‘touter’, but…whereas most of the other candidates I ended up with more ‘Bad’ or ‘Good and Bad’ divisions, Huckabee had mostly ‘Good.’ Crazy…I like his emphasis on infrastructure (maybe it is naïve but it makes sense to me), I like how he says that expressions of faith should be neither prohibited nor preferred, I support his protection of life, and a lower price of goods (but so far, the fair tax seems more like a HUGE tax break for the wealthy than fair…), the idea of a regional summit on Iran instead of attacking them or labeling them as ‘jihadists,’ empowering moderates to reduce the threat of Islamic Extremist regimes, reassessing Homeland Security (which I didn’t note on any other candidate’s website…though I could have missed it), and his approach to grassroots political dialogue. Plus, like Obama, I really like his website and also like Obama, he seems to have a very strong grassroots movement. Bad…come on Huckabee…a fence between us and Mexico? Getting rid of the IRS and making an amendment for traditional marriage…ehh….

IN THE END...

But...I would vote for McCain...I guess.

Reflection: None of the candidates are perfect, but like I read earlier today, "Politics is about making choices between relative goods and lesser evils and not about having perfect choices."

How exciting! I made a big deal about it today and taught a lesson on it. I also dressed all patriotic. I have a bunch of kids who want to go to our caucus. I think that's cool. They even realize they won't get to vote and that it takes a long time, but they're still interested. Yay! =-)