Sometimes lessons synch up so well with current events, it is insane. Today, I turn away from understanding political parties to critiquing them. And some of my students are waltzing through the door asking questions about the Ted Cruz "fauxbuster," which is a great interlude into the topic. (I particularly liked the Seussian post by Ruth Marcus in WaPo this morning. Giggle) Anywho, I assign an excerpt from Kate Zernike called Boiling Mad (available in the Lanahan Readings 5th edition). This is meant to piggy back on the discussion from the previous class about classifying political parties. Unfortunately, my kids did NOT read this, so the amazing questions I had for them will be shifted over to the test. They're on their own! The reading covers Rand Paul's rise to Congress in 2010, as well as the sentiment of the Tea Party. We struggled in class to classify the Tea Party as a coalition (much like the Neo-Cons) within the GOP, or as a splinter party to be, or as a party of the Libertarian movement. Zernike's coverage adds to the complexity of the classification, but there are a lot of interesting ties to the fauxbuster of yesterday... I would have really liked to ask the kids if they think that John Boehner should be concerned about the Tea Party movement. I personally think that he should, as Majority Leader Eric Cantor and the Tea Party have revolted against Boehner's leadership in December of 2011 and December of 2012. (Here is a great blurb on that from David Hawkings of CQ Roll Call.) So we plodded along and listened to Terri Gross's interview of former Congressmen Mickey Edwards, presently of NoLabels.org. Mickey gives a great overview of the partisan nature of politics in D.C., but the kids need to have either prior knowledge or instruction on the committee structure in Congress, redistricting, and open and closed primaries.
Going through this almost question by question is great to really reinforce the danger of factions that GW warned us about. It is brief (I only listen to the first 15 minutes) so kids don't completely zone out. I have a listening guide available on my website to help keep kids focused. I also like to print out pictures of the referenced politicians, so kids can start to tie faces to names. (They really get a kick out of the mustache magnets.) Some great questions come out of the dialogue... primarily why citizens are not aware of how bad things are with elections and in Congress. Well, I can't answer that question but I certainly can speculate.
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Jen's bookshelf: nerdcation
I want to start by thanking Mr. Snowden and Mr. Greenwald for their uncompromising dedication to giving the NSA violations air time and transparency.
I wanted to share some of the most important things I have learned from this book bef...
tagged:
nerdcation
tagged:
nerdcation and to-read
tagged:
nerdcation and to-read
tagged:
nerdcation and to-read
AuthorI lovgov. LOVE IT! I love teaching government, learning about it, debating, discussing, asking questions about government. And not the standard boiler plate questions, but the hard ones that are NOT in the books. Archives
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