Politics

Something tells me this post will get a lot of hits just for the title. No, I'm not going to go on a political rant. I want to keep this blog free of that...... mostly......

How is everyone dealing with the upcoming election and the resulting fallout on every social networking site available? I don't mind people posting political stuff, but I want them to support their posts with facts, links to said facts from an unbiased source. What frustrates me is the blatant fear mongering and lies that get thrown around every election, not just when there is a president involved, but of course no one seems to care unless there is a president involved, which is just a sad statement about our system and the lack of knowledge most people have on how it works.

Are you blocking people with the intention to unblock a week or so after it's all said and done? I have to admit I did that to a few family members. I just couldn't take the hate talk anymore. Yes, there is a difference between disliking someone and voicing that opinion and hatespeech.

Are you getting involved in fiery conversations? I haven't participated this year. A friend of mine posted about the chikfila ridiculousness a few months back and I actually was threatened by a family member of hers for commenting on it. I am not interested in partaking in any of those conversations, too much crazy out there.

I did make the mistake of asking a genuine question on a political post and I guess because my inclination was to disagree, though I was interested in any information that might move me otherwise, I upset the poster.

I have watched some crazy conversations play out that baffle me. You just can't get anywhere these days. There is no such thing as a civil political conversation. We seem to have forgotten as a society how to disagree with someone, present our facts with support, and even if we both walk away with differing opinions still be decent to one another or respect one another.

Oh, here's the tie in to homeschooling - Why is this the case? School. Children are taught there is only one set of facts. I know from my public school experiences that this is the case. These are the facts, now regurgitate them, there - you are now intelligent. Here's what we are going to write about in our argument assignment, read the first chapter, now regurgitate in your own words what you just read as fact in the book to prove your argument.... 30 papers repeating the same set of facts is hardly teaching anyone how to present an argument.

The only kids that got a good grasp of argument in high school were the kids in the debate class. One of which I know went on to study law and I think she's working toward being a judge. I wish I could say I agree with her on SOMETHING!? but that still doesn't change the fact I respect her as a person while at the same time disagreeing with her on pretty much everything she posts..... but I have not blocked her because I still find her opinion and facts valid and worth taking note of. 

Complex thought is not encouraged until you get into college. Argument paper - go to the library and pick a subject, support it, bring me back the paper and I will ask you questions, you better be able to convince me or you fail.  Third semester I had to take American History..... umm.... wait.... you just squished nearly all "facts" about our country that I learned over the course of 13 years in one semester.... I have a family member in college that learned about Grimm's fairy tales this week and the stories predating those that are even more gruesome. It blew her mind that all the stories she grew up with were based in such nastiness.

This is by no means the teachers' fault, they are bound by what they have to cover, what children are expected to test well on, and time stretched across so many kids. I remember my junior year wanting desperately to bring my grade up in history class the last week of school and the teacher told me to write a paper, anything. I wrote a short biography of Ho Chi Minh (I was obsessed with the musical Miss Saigon at the time so it makes total sense), but it was how he was viewed by the Vietnamese not Americans. I learned a tremendous amount because I was in a pinch and I took any resource I could get my hands on. The resources I found were overwhelmingly positive which surprised me, I was so used to the half a paragraph in the textbook that portrays a villain. The teacher seemed very pleased with the outcome. He gave me bonus credit and bumped up my grade. That is why I do not believe teachers are happy with this situation either. I believe they want to teach more complex thought processes. The fact there are two sides to history and one's villain is another's hero and this is something one should keep in mind when examining EVERYTHING, but they are bound by a broken system.

This post was partially inspired by this article posted by a teacher friend of mine this week. It is the resignation letter of a North Carolina teacher. Worth a read if you have the time.

I, for one, am seriously considering a social network hiatus for the next two weeks, because we all know the aftermath of the election will be more nasty than the coming week. I may very well disappear from every forum except where I am keeping tabs on my pregnant friends because we have more important things to talk about than politics (haha). I may even take a break from blogging for the next two weeks, not sure we'll see, maybe a total internet blackout is in order.