Politics at school

[LWolf]

I teach in a tiny little rural town. The vast majority of my students don't live in town, but on outlying acreage. Many are ranchers. Many are hunters. I expect a huge drop in attendance at our school over the next few weeks as families take off on hunting trips.

Rural areas tend red, and mine is no exception. Even in this decidedly red area, though, GWB has more detractors than fans.

Don't get me wrong. He has plenty of hard-core fans, too. But the number of families who oppose him, and who are supporting the Democratic nominee, is surprising from an area like this.

I'd seen no bumperstickers, no signs, heard no talk until recently. The ranches I drive past on my way to work typically sport republican signs; a few always have a sign for every republican on the ticket. The republican signs are out in force, but I haven't seen a single McCain sign to go along with those for state and local candidates.

I have seen a couple of Obama stickers, and one McCain/Palin bumper sticker. Most of my reading comes from listening to my middle-school students talk politics. They invariably parrot whatever they get at home, so I think it's a pretty good indication.

We had to have a meeting with the principal yesterday, my teaching partners and I. Politics are heating up. We don't take sides of any kind, or express political opinions of any kind. We do, however, cover the election as a current event, as a part of the government we teach about, and many students are proposing the presidential election as a debate topic for debate class.

I have one student who has taken to wearing a "McCain/Palin" button. Most of her peers ignore it; a few mention it to agree or argue. Her mom, though, was chatting with office staff this week and said, "____________(her 3rd grade son) wants us to get him a gun for Christmas. He told us that, since the Democrats are taking over, we'd all better be prepared to defend ourselves."

Hence the conversation about politics at school.

Interesting to note that the most hard-core McCain supporters in this area have conceded the election.

Worse is the total ignorance on the part of those most likely to love Palin, to support McCain--ignorance brought on by decades of mass media propaganda and propaganda from the pulpit. In my opinion.

The button-wearing student is in debate class. We're doing our best to expose her to critical thinking skills. The class is taught to recognize fallacies, and to back up their positions with solid evidence. It's a long, hard hill to climb in some cases.

I've taught in suburbia. While thinking wasn't exactly popular, it was easier to teach thinking skills there. In this little rural area, there is an embedded antipathy to thinking. People prefer to repeat what they've been told, and consider themselves "smart."

It's only the first week of October, and I'm already tired.

[Taverner]

1. Anyone bother pointing out crime goes down in a Dem admin

And up in a Repub one?

Democrats want to curb guns by removing reasons to buy them

[LWolf]

2. Rural people

don't necessarily keep their guns primarily for defense against "crime." If they aren't survivalists, they are generally hunters, and they use guns to protect stock against predators.

Most of us, myself included, leave our doors unlocked. As a matter of fact, when I bought my place, the former owner had to get a locksmith in to put new locks on. She'd never used the keys, in 20 years, weren't sure where she put them when she packed, and when the cleaning crew came in to clean the place up after she moved out, they locked all the doors behind them. My move was delayed by 3 days waiting for keys.

While I know where the keys are, I've never used them. The place hasn't been locked since.

Rural people do have a definite attitude about government and law enforcement "interference."

[truedelphi]

3. I live in similiar area and Ron Paul took a lot away fromt he Repug base

he got a whopping 10% of the Republican vote in the Primaries.

And Huckabee got a great deal of voter's also.

Some people who are Republican are looking for people smart enough to address the issues. And Huckabee was the first Rebuclian in a long while who understood how badly biased the tax rates are for the rich.

This is one reason why the inner circle choose Palin for McCain. They could not afford to have Huckabee in a number two position - when McCain kicks the bucket - he would not have helped the big oil interests, nor would he have helped the rich continue to get their way with the tax code.

[EFerrari]

4. I've thought long about finding a rural school to teach in.

Why do you live there, LWolf? :)

[LWolf]

5. I like living with my horses.

I like being able to ride out my gate and go for miles and miles through the rocks and trees, without ever seeing another human being.

I like the open space. I like quiet roads. I like clear skies. I like that I can get to work, even though it's 13.5 miles away, with no stoplights and only 4 stop signs. I like that, while I have neighbors, I don't have to hear them or see them, and neither do I have to worry about them hearing or seeing me, if I want to play my music loudly or dance outside in my pajamas. As a matter of fact, I often feed my horses in my pajamas before I get ready for work. ;)

I used to like having a town with no big box stores, although that's no longer the case. :(

I like that I can get to the local airport in 15 minutes, find a place to park in 2 minutes right next to the terminal, and that there are no lines or crowds for incoming or outgoing flights.

I like that everybody knows everybody. People don't live in eachother's pockets, but everyone is connected and interconnected.

I love the library, where parking is easy, there is never a line, but I can find just about anything I want, or request it from the county system.

I like that I can show up to work with a stray piece of hay or horsehair, and no one thinks twice. They all have their own morning chores and animals to manage.

I like that people take their dogs everywhere; the last 4th of July parade I attended, there were almost as many dogs on leashes as people. People are more open, for the most part, smiling when they pass you, waving when they pass you in their cars.

I like the absence of street lights. We don't even have them on our highways. It's DARK out there at night, so nobody is racing after dark. The sky is brilliant with stars. At this time of year, I go to sleep with the big dipper framed by the big window in my bedroom. If I step outside and look up, the milky way is so thick it brings tears to my eyes.

I like the way people are more self-sufficient. I wish they were as intellectual as they are physically practical, but I admire the way they manage to get practical things done themselves. They can put up and repair their own fences and outbuildings, grow their own hay (even when they're primary job is not farming,) butcher their own meat, and many other practical skills lost to suburbia.

I like having students who remind me of me at their age, although I didn't live "rurally;" it was just long ago enough that even suburbia had it's "country" pockets. They aren't surprised to know that I spent childhood riding my horse bareback and barefoot, often bridleless, and that I've never worn a helmet. They do much the same.

Mostly, I love the solitude, and the silence.

[EFerrari]

6. I used to commute up and down a mountain and usually got home

after the sidewalks were rolled up. I still remember one night rushing to get home before the 5&10 closed because I needed thread. By the time I got there, it was quarter after five and my kid was going to have a clothing emergency at school the next day.

But, the owner saw my face and opened up the store to sell me 75 cents worth of white thread. I was flabbergasted -- and, very grateful.

[proud2BlibKansan]

7. I'm moving in

Packing my bags now. :)

[LWolf]

9. It's inviting, isn't it?

The last time I was in KC, I spent quite a bit of time out in rural areas. Some with my dad, on fishing trips. Some with my grandparents, on my great-grandparents ranch.

Talk about wide-open space; for those of us used to hills, trees, rocks, ridges, it's SCARY to stand out in a field of grass and see nothing but the grass and the earth curving away from us in any direction. My dad used to take us fishing in places like that. He'd find what looked like a mud hole in the middle of all of that, and we'd stay for days. I was afraid to go far enough away from the campsite to even find the road we left to get to the mud hole. I was never sure how he managed to find it to begin with.

Of course, that was in 1976. I'll bet, though, that the entire prairie is not yet paved over.

You're welcome to visit any time.

:hi:

[proud2BlibKansan]

8. My school is 90% Hispanic

and about half of the parents are undocumented. When I first started at this school 11 years ago, it was one third Hispanic, one third white and one third black.

So most of our kids and their families are sadly oblivious to the election or what it means to them.

But I do have a couple little boys (5th and 6th graders) who are beyond excited about Barack Obama and this election. Almost every day they ask me about something they heard on the news or from their families. The day after Obama's acceptance speech at the convention, one of them couldn't wait to tell me he got to stay up late the night before to watch Obama. And he was honestly just glowing as he told me about it. It was one of those rare sweet moments we have with kids (especially THIS kid - LOL.)

I have worried about how badly he will be disappointed if Obama doesn't win the election.

Just the other day he told me he asked the principal who she was going to vote for and she said McCain. And he was really mad. LOL

Most of the families at my school are very very poor and daily survival is enough of a struggle that talking about politics is like you and I talking about rocket science.

As far as the parents, no one ever talks politics. My DFA group did voter registration at our open house and we did register around a dozen voters. But no one talked about who they wanted to vote for.

I always tell the kids they should be sure to encourage their parents to vote. And every once in awhile a kid will tell me who their parents vote for and it is always always always the Democrat. Going back nearly 30 years.

And of course kids ask me who I am going to vote for and I ask them who they think I should vote for. It's always always always the Democrat.

So they seem to get it but it isn't anything they spend as much time on as we do.

[LWolf]

10. The biggest drawback

of rural living where I am is that it's too white. To put it bluntly. I look at pictures of my classroom in the years before I moved, and I find myself hungry for the sight of more diverse faces and voices.

Not that we don't have some; they are just too few.

We had an undocumented family up until last year, when they moved back to Mexico. Teachers and students both miss them.

Across our K-8 school, homeless families are increasing. I lost one girl, homeless all last year, to a different school; the homeless find more opportunities for shelter and food in town, and that's where she is. I worry about her. I've got another on her way now. She is an "at risk" student anyway, with the broken, dysfunctional, and disadvantaged background that put kids at risk whether they have a home or not. Homelessness, plus the recent suicide of a family member, have us holding her as close as we can. Parents have stepped into help, making sure she gets to and from school from where ever she happened to sleep the night before, whether that's local, "in town," or even in the next town over, 25 miles away.

Financial hardships are visible. Winter is coming, and ours are long and cold. We're trying to find shoes and coats for more students than ever before.

I've heard even many families that I know to be conservative republicans make harsh remarks about Bush, and indicate that they will vote for the democrat, even when they don't want to say his name.

We have some of the extremists, too, of course. I saw two fresh mccain/palin signs in pastures by the highway yesterday; one said "drill baby, drill!" Which, as I mentioned elsewhere, motivated me to want to drill their skull in search of missing brain matter.

[Longhorn]

11. We got an email at our community college spelling out what is okay and what isn't.

I use my laptop and the school's projector to show my PowerPoint lectures. I had the photo of Obama holding a dog rescued from a puppy mill as my desktop. Since my desktop is sometimes projected on the screen, I decided I better remove it. My screensaver is a Bush countdown clock and I figure that's okay because there is no political statement attached. All it says is, "Because counting backwards makes the time go faster." :) We're also not allowed to wear pins or t-shirts while teaching.

Here's the Obama photo:

[LWolf]

12. I do not identify myself with party, candidate, or anything else on campus.

Of course, I'm in a middle school. Your students, for the most part, are adults.

Still, I'd rather teach people to think and let them use those skills to come to their own conclusions. Even in college, overt expressions of faith and politics on the part of an instructor can be used to discriminate against some students. I think it's appropriate to keep them out of the classroom.

[Longhorn]

13. I agree. I would hate to sit in a classroom and have Republican politics

lectured to me. I teach math but we do discuss inflation, income taxes, and the federal debt. I let the facts speak for themselves. :)

[LWolf]

14. When you teach them to think, the facts speak louder

than any teacher ever will. Perhaps that's why the conservatives don't want thinking as part of public school curriculum.

[Longhorn]

15. That's always been my belief.

That, and I think they oppose a "liberal arts education" because it has the word "liberal" in it. ;)

[goddess40]

16. one of our high schools sent there band to play for McCain

at a rally that was held here for him.

Edit: During the school day, with a school bus and in uniform

[LWolf]

17. Unless every last band parent is a McCain supporter,

I'd expect to see the school board fielding some heat, at the least.

My son, who was first chair trumpet in 3 different high school bands, would have been trumpeting some righteous protest. He's 31 now, and still a musician. When I tell him about this he will STILL be outraged.

[Nevernose]

19. Were they paid for it?

While we never played anything political, my high school band occasionally "played gigs" for money. I remember doing a convention, a store opening, and something else that is hazy. While still not great to perform for something political, it is at least a little different if there's money involved.

[goddess40]

23. no but tax payers paid for the trip

even a short bus trip is expensive these days.

[davefromqueens]

18. My Thoughts

As someone who taught for 10 yrs and still teaches once a week, I first commend you for teaching.

Second, the rewards of the job come when you least expect it. Enjoy those moments.

Third, the kids have always asked me Who do you vote for, are you a democrat or republican, what's your religion, etc... I never tell them although some could probably figure it out. Tell them that I won't tell you and more importantly, tell them why - That I don't bring my politics or religion into the classroom and that everybody's view is respected. (BTW no one can argue with that yet that happens to be liberalism.)

Fourth, segue into what kids should do - teach them to get information from as many sources as possible, to hear differing views, to be skeptical of info, and then make a decision. Teach them what biases are, how stats can be manipulated, etc....

You'll get the end political result you seek without ever being political.

[Nevernose]

20. Good post. That's exactly what I do w/ younger students.

My ninth graders get damned near the same speech. My twelfth graders get a different speech, the "You should know up front that I'm biased. Very biased. Anyone remember what 'bias' means? So take what I say with a grain of salt -- challenge me the first chance you get, and don't believe a word I say at face value. Okay, this year we'll be reading All Quiet on the Western Front, The Things They Carried, 1984, Inherit the Wind, and The Grapes of Wrath, among other things." Things in a year like this inevitably get political, and my book selection is purposefully political anyway, but it leads to the best class discussions. I'm also very, very good at playing the Devil's Advocate and taking the other position.

It provides a constant opportunity to discuss bias -- even the kids that agree with me are constantly forcing me to explain why I say something, anything.

I think it's been great training in teaching kids to look for bias and to evaluate sources. So often we force kids into unrealistic expectations of human behavior. Their teachers are not, and are never going to be, without bias. Why do we pretend that we're not? Of course, I'm the same weirdo that teaches an entire lesson in Bloom's Taxonomy and forces the kids to write their own tests and lesson plans for the class, so maybe I'm just crazy?

[Rancid Crabtree]

21. Hi Teacher!

My brother took up teaching to stay in the area, more rural than urban...kids loved him...he almost blew up the chemistry lab one day and that made him a big hit, even as he saw his career evaporating with the smoke in the air...but it seems like you could find an issue where the facts and the public perception are at odds...something that isn't completely partisan...maybe the recent Heller decision of the USSC, 5-4 the vote count...haven't read their opinion on it...but another was their decision on BCFR, another 5-4 decision...free speech and the Second Amendment. If the highest court in the land has split decisions like those...and all of the justices argued persuasively for their opinion, wouldn't that suggest that right or wrong are not always clearly defined?

Or take taxes as an example. What are people paying for taxes? I've seen a site on-line that tells me taxes for people like myself have actually gone down since Bush took office. And yet I keep hearing differently. A post said that crime goes down during a Dem administration...does it? At what level of government would we credit a reduction in crime...federal, state, or local? You didn't mention what age your students are...unless you said so in one of the other posts.

[LWolf]

22. We do all of that.

We do a good job of being even handed.

Yesterday afternoon we were examining articles downloaded from the net on a common subject (NOT politics, lol) learning to recognize bias.

One of my classes is preparing to re-stage the constitutional convention, and re-argue federalism vs anti-federalism, and they will be making connections to current politics.

We don't have trouble making sure kids get opportunities to examine and engage in current issues and the political process.

We have trouble dealing with parents who won't allow their kids to examine anything neutrally, without built-in bias.

It's more intense in any election year; this one is the most extreme I've ever seen.

I think part of it is because of what passes as "fact" on talk radio, talk tv, and partisan internet communities. Anything that challenges those "facts" puts people's world views at risk, and becomes a reason to go to war.

:hi: