Back when I taught Freshmen toward the end of my career, I used to give them a little blackboard (the use of that word alone tells you how antiquated I am) quiz at the beginning of the term. I would write ten words on the board - simple words like "Denver," "Politics," "Friendship," etc. My students simply had to copy the ten words correctly with no mistakes to earn an A. In my final two years of teaching Freshman, I never had a student earn an A on that quiz! I am not exaggerating. After seeing the results of my little test, I adjusted my lesson plans and goals accordingly and pushed on.
I share this anecdote because I fear that our entire country is being taken over by my ninth graders. No one listens. No one reads. No one can concentrate on any one thing for longer than an eye blink.
How else do you explain the growing anger over health care and bank bailouts and Obama's citizenship and his alleged affilliation with communism, socialism and fascism all at the same time. (News flash: those three terms are mutually exclusive. Didn't anyone pay attention during social studies classes?) I was reading a piece in Sunday's New York Times about populist rage in New Hampshire. They obviously hadn't heard or read a word that was uttered by the administration about the reforms. They were still worried about Death Panels. They still wanted government to keep its hands off Medicare!!!!! They wanted to be able to keep the insurance they already had. They were furious that their taxes would go up by as much as 75%.
In other words, they were reacting to the proposed reforms the same way my freshmen used to react to any new explanation. They simply ignored it and continued to believe whatever they wanted to believe, or to believe whatever the most popular person in class (read: Sarah Palin) told them to believe. I got the impression that I could take any of these New Hamshirites by the collar, force them to listen to me read the FACTS about reform, make them repeat the reforms I just read, give them a test about the reforms, and the next day all would be forgotten and they would back on the streets yelling about Death Panels.
I guess that is why I kind of envy right-wing conservatives. They get to believe anything they want.
I have to admit that I'm getting a little worried about myself. At the height of the presidential campaign I started hating all of those people who were believing the claptrap generated by Fox News and talk radio ranters. I was so relieved when Obama won because I thought I could go back to normal and stop hating right-wingers and other stupid people. But no! The talk has become even more poisonous and delusional and I find myself hating people again and saying things that are mean spirited.
For example, I was sitting in the hot tub at the Y with a bunch of naked republicans after the Massachusetts debacle. They were giving me a hard time about what they considered the certain death of the democratic party. Normally, I would just laugh it off and join in the repartee. Instead I made the following comment: "I've decided to start thinking like a conservative. You know, I've got great health insurance, a steady income, and if the defeat of Obama's health reform means that some poor slobs get coverage denied, or that 40 million individuals are without health care, well fuck'em. I mean that's how you guys think isn't it?"
The group's reaction to my liberal outburst was a collective gasp, partly because I spoke the truth and partly because people aren't supposed to say words like fuck in the YMCA (Remember our motto at the Y: Clean mind, clean body. Take your pick.)
I'm going to try a prolonged fast from the news. I figure it is the only way I can be nice to folks again.
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2 comments:
First off, I taught Freshman English to Freshman, Sophomores and Juniors (that part should be telling right there) at a charter school in DPS for the 2007-2008 school year (Southwest Early College). You exaggerate not with the quiz. I loved the kids, and they had dynamic personalities, but for the majority of the students in the class, I was adjusting my lesson plans and goals to about a sixth grade reading level. Granted, a lot of the kids did not have a very good start at things: the kids were low income, low achieving, minority, and second-language speakers of English (the kids were from the area between Colfax and Hampden on Federal Blvd, for the most part, if that gives more context).
It's a good parallel you make with recent freshman in high school and the state of where a lot of people's heads are in the nation.
I have had similar conversations with people of conservative leanings, especially about health care reform. My experience is as you write, too:
"In other words, they were reacting to the proposed reforms the same way my freshmen used to react to any new explanation. They simply ignored it and continued to believe whatever they wanted to believe, or to believe whatever the most popular person in class (read: Sarah Palin) told them to believe."
I'm glad you called it the way you did at the Y.
You are right on another thing, too: what good is this going to do? "I find myself hating people again and saying things that are mean spirited."
If it all is turning you into one of them (I'm hearing Yoda's voice in my head and warnings about fear, hate, and anger turning one to the Dark Side, lol), then a news fast might be one of the answers.
How I try to deal with it is to keep informed about the facts, as much as I can without losing it out of frustration, take care of my own body as much as I can (I am now on my second year of no health insurance, not even in France, yet. Out of the past ten years, only four of those years have I had health insurance coverage. I have learned to really take care of myself), try to help others as much as I can in terms of giving to organizations like the Red Cross, and, well, okay, move to France, lol. Not that the move was politically-motivated. I do find it very refreshing to be in a country where the people feel sane to me in terms of politics and beliefs, however. The move likely will not be forever, though, and one day I will have to deal more actively with my home country and all its problems in politics and with the state of health care.
Meanwhile, there are like-minded folks out there, dear Mr. S. Maybe not at the Y in suburban Denver, but we exist, we get it, we see what is going on and how *not right* it is, and we hold hope that change can come. Hang on, keep speaking out against stupidity, and keep trying to communicate to others how important this stuff is. There are always those who hear and are able to listen and understand.
Case in point: I was a teacher at SEC for only one year, but I still have students who regularly email me. One of the reasons they do it is that I connected with something inside of them. One of the ways I was able to connect with them is because I chose to read The Catcher in the Rye out loud to them in class, knowing it would be hard for them to read on their own, but thinking that they might listen if I read it out loud to them. Many did listen, and they loved it.
Why did I choose to read it to them? Because some 20+ years before, a beloved teacher had me read it in high school. :) I took it in, it became a book of ballast to me, and made a difference in my life.
It goes on. Sometimes like a dim light in a dark place. But rest assured there are some cool Latino kids in SW Denver who walk on carrying something that Holden Caulfield taught them, all because their teacher's teachers passed that light on to her, too.
That, and there is always a free place to stay in France if you and the missus want to come hang out for a while. :)
Sorry to blog in your blog (a bad habit of mine). But I get that way when people write important stuff. ;)
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