It’s been a while since I blogged on here, and for this I apologize. So, I’m going to change that right now. And I’m going to blog about my favorite topic – my students.
This past week, at the school where I work (which is a high school for emotionally disturbed and learning disabled students) we held a mock election. However, we did it properly – we had actual voting booths, sample ballots, and even the “I voted” stickers from the Contra Costa County elections office, and the students had to come during their breaks to cast their ballots (just as in real life, you must go in to vote on your own time).
Two weeks ago, I started teaching them about everything that was on the ballot, to allow them to make more informed choices. I taught them about all six presidential candidates, everyone running for Congress, State Senate, State Assembly, School Board, and City Council. I taught them about all twelve propositions on the state ballot and the two propositions on the local ballot.
The balloting, for the most part, went well (although one kid blew up at the counselor working the polls with me because she wouldn’t let him cut in line (he called her an “asshole,) and one just wrote “Fuck Voting!” on his/her ballot). While teaching about everything on the ballot, they posed very good questions, and demonstrated quite sophisticated reasoning when discussing the merits of the various propositions. The turnout at the polls was solid – about 67% of the students who were present voted.
For results, Obama took 84% of the vote, Propositions 4 and 8 were both soundly defeated (73% and 65% no, respectively,) 2 passed, and 1a was dead even.
I found this all very encouraging. These students, who are some of the most troubled around, are already demonstrating the qualities of good voters. In fact, I would say that they are better voters than many "normal" adults out there.
Monday, November 03, 2008
Saturday, August 09, 2008
Great Western Roadtrip - 2008 - Going
On July 25, I finished up with summer school, and since I have a month off, I decided to hop in my Mitsubishi and drive east, and not stop driving until I reached my hometown of Bismarck, North Dakota. This is a pretty daunting road trip, mind you - I would be doing it solo, and my car has no cruise control (don't really need that in city driving,) and, according to Google Maps, it's 23 hours and 57 minutes from door to door. Also, I had never been to most of the places in between. So, I did it slowly, making frequent stops, and seeing what the Great American West had to offer. Everything on the way down went pretty well, other than my having a nasty cold, and I had a great time - it made me fall in love with America all over again! So, these are the photos that I took on my way to Dakota. I'll have more from the return trip, which begins in just a few days. Hail Progress!
My first stop of the trip was at Donner Pass, in Eastern California. In 1846, the Donner Party, a group of 87 settlers from Illinois, were attempting to reach California by passing through here. They were caught in an October Snowstorm at this spot in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and were not able to get out until the spring of the following year. The snow that winter was the heaviest ever seen in the Sierras - it was twenty-two feet deep, marked by the height of the base on which this statue stands. Miraculously, 45 of the 87 in the Donner Party survived in shelters they built. Of course, they survived by eating the flesh of those who had already died. And me? I just got in my car and drove through.
In ancient times, there was a large saline lake on this spot called Lake Bonneville in Western Utah, not far from the Nevada border. That has since evaporated, but has left a thick layer of salt (in some places, six feet thick). There's so much salt that nothing can grow - a desert of salt, really. However, for whatever reason, vehicles move faster on the salty surface here, and many land speed records have been shattered at the Bonneville Salt Flats International Speed Way (apparently, people have driven over 600 mph on this site). This is me at the site.
In ancient times, salt was the most important of all stragic minerals. Wars were fought over places which produce salt. In Ancient Rome, soldiers were paid with salt (the word "salary" comes from the Latin words Sala Dare, which means "to receive salt." It is also the origin of the expression "worth his salt"). If these ancient rulers had known of the Bonneville Salt Flats, one would have to believe that much blood would have been spilled in efforts to control it.
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