Get Out the Bloody Vote

I am totally in favour of mandatory voting/fines for those who do not comply, ala Australia.  I could go into the long list of reasons why - it encourages good citizenship, it provides greater incentives to better fund education, it creates investment in currently totally disaffected communities, it would force politicians to go center rather than to the extremes, etc.  But mostly, in the grand American tradition, I want to complain.  About ads like these.

That AARP ad that has lines like, "Washington may not like straight talk, but I do" and "Washington doesn't want you to know blah blah blah" (that's verbatim), encouraging seniors to speak out about changes to medicare and social security.  

My issues with this ad are two-fold:

1. Seniors need no encouragement to go vote.  AARP is spending money on these ads because seniors show up to vote regardless, and if an organization like the AARP tells them what to do while they're there, it'll get done.  These sorts of ads just won't work as well on young people because they weren't really on the fence about showing up to vote or not - they're not going to.  You know what totally would get young people to show up? Charging them money if they don't.

But also, you would think from voting patterns and the sentiments of this ad that seniors are both totally unrepresented in the debate on Medicare and Social Security and the only people affected by changes to the system.  This is so, so wrong on both counts.  Politicians don't want to touch these issues with a ten-foot pole in large part because seniors currently utilizing these services are so very, very vocal.  And young people are in some ways more affected by changes to the system than seniors - no serious policy maker is putting out a plan that would affect current beneficiaries.  All plans basically shift the cuts to later generations.  So if anything, seniors need to back off a bit and understand that it's not going to be them who are going to fall through the giant hole in the safety net - it's the rest of us.

2. This whole "Washington says x but the rest of us know y" bugs the bejeezus out of me.  This is a representative democracy.  You are Washington, and Washington is you.  And I don't just say that because I happen to live there.  If anything, I say that in spite of living in the one place in the country where we don't get representation.  The irony of that has too many layers for me to really understand.

Anyway, first of all, the crazy polarization and partisanship of Washington...it's just reflecting our own polarization.  I've written about this before, about how gerrymandering is actually just a reflection of our own desire to have nothing to do with people who aren't like us, which is depressing.  But in this other book we read for that same Alice Rivlin class, by Alan Abramovitz, he argues that it's us, not the politicians, who can no longer see the other point of view and want no part of compromise.  I don't 100% buy this.  But I also don't buy that Washington has just gone all crazy all on their own - it's our democracy and I think the first step to fixing it to take ownership of the problems.  Having worked with a couple local politicians, I can tell you that any involved voter is going to take precedent over any "special interest group".  If someone doesn't like what's happening, it is his or her right and responsibility to get in contact with the representative and fix it.  There is no great conspiracy to keep the American people out of government - more information than you could ever want or need is available online with a few clicks, and C-SPAN records every last minute of proceedings on the floor.  And PS, they apparently talk like 10th graders, so if you still feel like you can't possibly understand them, then we may have some other education problems happening.

As a side note, I will also throw something at my TV if I hear "Washington" being said with a phantom "r" one more time.  That is just incorrect.

Hope for the Future (kind of)

I am currently at home in California, hanging out with my family and thoroughly soaking up the lack of any work I have to do.  Every day, I watch obscene amounts of TV, go for walks, sit in the sun, bake and read books that have nothing to do with policy.  Ok, the last bit isn't 100% true.  I'm currently reading a biography of LBJ, or at least the first volume of one.  It's not strictly about policy, but hot damn that man made a lot of policy happen.  He was  such a bad ass.  I used to think if I could have an affair with one President it would be Woodrow Wilson (clearly a sexy man, a Democrat in a sea of Republicans and he created the Fed.  Hot.)  But as I read this biography...I just don't know.


Anyway, this is not the point of this post.  The point is that I am home and have little to nothing to do most days, except for today.  Today, I helped out at my mom's school by interviewing 8th graders at their "Portfolio Fair" - they showed me their best work and I asked them questions about it.  Well, let me clarify.  Some of them showed me their best work. Others showed me folders they had clearly put together earlier that morning.  But I absolutely loved it.  As much as I hated teaching and was not meant to do it, I do miss hanging out with middle schoolers.  They are hilarious and I adore their honesty.


Things I learned from them today:


1. My mom is "cool".  Their little faces just lit up when I told them who my mom was.  They all gushed about how great she is.  Obviously true.  This even goes for the little slackers who showed up with their half-done folders.  So I also learned from them that this is what a good teacher looks like - even the kids who are not-so-great know that she cares.
I liked all of my teachers.  But I was also a goody-goody.  Some of them, I know, were not so loved by kids who didn't get their stuff done.  That's a decent teacher.  A great  teacher is one who manages to reach even the kids who don't get their acts together.  I have rarely been so proud of my mother as I was today.


2. Math education needs a serious makeover.  To be honest, I sort of knew this before...it's sort of my dad's life's work.  But you know, this was their chance to show me their absolute best work and brag about all their most creative and interesting projects.  I kid you not, every single child showed me some flashcards and said it helped them study for tests.  I asked the first few kids if they didn't have a poster or a writing assignment or a bigger project of some kind to share.  The response: "No...this is for math class."  Right.  How dare I expect creativity.  And we wonder why kids graduate not wanting to pursue a STEM career.


3. Telling kids "Write 3 paragraphs reflecting on a character trait" is not, in fact, a good way to get kids to build character.  You're shocked, I know.  
Every kid had to have this little essay talking about their favourite "pillar of character" (part of some program that I'm sure cost the district some insane amount of money) and every single child openly told me "I don't know why we had to do this."
Me neither.  But this is something I just don't get about the whole world of education.  Both teachers and administrators seem to forget that while adults and children do learn differently in some ways...we're not different in every way.  Go to any professional development session, and you'll see a bunch of administrators leading a "learning experience" that they would flunk any teacher in that room for giving to their students.  6 hours of sitting, little to no modeling, certainly no ongoing support.  In the same way, who learns new skills or builds new capacity by writing 3 reflective paragraphs?  "Responsibility" and "kindness" are not things best learned via structured essays.


4. My shoes are "totes adorbs".  Who knew.