Citizenship, Politics, and the Lessons Teaching Has Taught Me

Obama...hmm...

Thousands of children go back to school every fall, and what do they do for the first month or so? Review and refresh. Obama's campaign communicated to Americans the concept and theory behind universal health care; the shameful practices of pharmaceutical companies, lobbyists, and BIG government (yes folks - Republicans are big government architects because they are in the pockets of Big Corporations). The result of this is that We the People are held hostage to the immense control, suppression, and exploitative oligarchy of power these politicians and big industries hold us hostage to. So, Obama got elected, was sworn into office a bit later (just enough time for citizens to slip back into the passive panacea of materialism and vanity, and FEAR), but he forgot the golden rule of teaching to returning students: he didn't review, but rather, he bulldozed ahead with big plans to shake things up and change laws, rather than remind the country what they voted for with a refresher course in his campaign platform... what he should have done was gradually ease people back into being active listeners and citizens, and, worked with congress to change/modify existing laws around insurance, prescription drugs, and the various other exposures he made during his campaign. When citizens become passive, again, it is easy for Fox and Rush and the rusty regime of the right to sneak in with the old fear-propaganda, and then we are back to red/blue dualist reactionary ignorance and obtuse behavior.

So, President Obama, please learn from this: review review review, and then you can introduce bold new concepts, once everyone is back in the spring of your agenda.

Connections...as a result of all of this, I also see from my experience teaching, that people do not have the skill of making connections from the political arena to themselves. Text-to-self connections are key to comprehension, analysis, synthesis and just being a good, old citizen, patriot...

Here is an analogical lesson for our time:

When you spend eight years eating Twinkies, and then one year eating your vegetables and whole grains, it is irrational to be outraged that your body isn't in fighting condition.

When you spend eight years getting kicked in the head every time you brush your teeth, you might have a fear of going near a toothbrush, even if the kicking ended one year ago. Even if your teeth rot and fall out - some of you will never brush your teeth again. You will simply get dentures and eat mush.