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My wife teaches high school civics in a public school system. We live in a very RED part of California where the majority of the students she sees every day are hispanic. Since the election process in going full tilt, she's tailoring her lessons to coincide with this and trying to engage the kids as much as possible. It's a TOUGH job because, try as hard as she might - the kids just AREN'T intersted in the mechanics of government. Consequently it's not very rewarding for her. Of course, if it were JUST the role of teaching to be dealt with, it would be to a degree, easier. But there's so many extraneous facets that have to be done over and above the "teaching" that it's mind-numbing. With five years left to reach retirement, it's too late to switch horses and yet I watch as the stress of the task drains her. I just hope there's something left of her when the five years is up!
Anyway - I've strayed from what I wanted to tell. She does an exercize with the kids that involves going on the net to this site where you answer a bunch of questions about what you'd do about various national issues. When they've answered all the questions, the results pair them with the candidate who's overall stance aligns with theirs. (Heh - when I took the quiz last spring, it showed that Kucinich was my guy!) Anyway - she's going around monitoring what the kids have come up with and one boy's results showed him to be aligned with Edwards. Thing is, the kid was writing a short summary of why he'd be voting for Obama. So she asked the little light bulb - WHY? - when his results showed that Edwards ought to be HIS candidate, he was voting for Obama??? The boy replied: Yeah, I know Edwards says what I feel, but I'm voting for Obama 'cause he's cool! And there ya have it! It's (as we already know) a case of celebrity over substance. All I can think of is the poor founding fathers - all uncomfortably askew in their burial outfits. The result of spinning in their respective graves!
:banghead: :crazy:
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