- 07 Feb 2024 15:32
#15303724
@JohnRawls the reality is that most people really do not want to become involved in many things they consider 'controversial'. Authority figures tell them one thing. The media says another thing.
I used to teach government classes to adults. Mostly young people from the ages of 18-24. It was interesting. Many of them never understood government or how it worked in the United States until they took a required class like Government 101. I taught that basic class for a year. I was surprised at the amount of young people entering college for the first time who would tell me, 'I never understood what the purpose of having checks and balances were about in the USA.' They never really understood how their own government worked. There was a piece on Political Action Committees. PACs.
They were fascinated by how that worked. They were interested in why there was a separation between church and state. How it was written into the US Constitution. Why? They wanted to know the whys of it all. Why this or why that?
No one took the time to explain that to them until they took the Government 101 in college. I asked them, 'what did you learn in high school?'. Government and civics is an elective in many high schools. It never used to be. So you have now some electives like 'tennis 101', 'Cheerleading 101', 'Chess Club' and so on that you take instead of Government. Government sounds BORING to these teens. So they choose not to take it in high school. They never learn anything about social science or government as a consequence. In many high schools you do not have to take any foreign languages in high school. In Colorado if you did not take at least three years of a foreign language in high school, you can still get your high school diploma, you can go on to a vocational school or a community college and get an associate's degree or graduate as an auto mechanic, a welder, etc without ever studying either government, civics, history, social studies or a foreign language.
In college you have to take three years of foreign language if you never took any in high school. But high school in the USA for foreign language study is very weak in general. Often you can't get one teacher who is going to teach you three years of say French, Italian or Spanish consecutively. So they wind up taking one semester of French, basic Italian for another semester, one semester of Spanish and so on and never get beyond basic level of any of them. They never practice and it is soon forgotten. Same for civics and government.
I also would give citizenship classes to immigrants in the USA. I would often get questions from immigrants that were really interesting. They often learned about government for the first time in their lives. They came from nations originally in which they often had limited educations. And they often did not really understand the form of government of the nation they came from and much less the nation they were applying to become citizens of.
I would have the most interesting conversations with the immigrants. I remember one Mexican woman asking me in Spanish why January 16th was a holiday that all the banks were closed in the USA? I told her it was MLK, Jr. day. Why was he so important? I said he was a Civil Rights leader. That then became why did a Civil Rights movement become necessary in the USA if the US Constitution said all men were created equal, and had the right to pursue happiness? And the Civil War of the US meant that all people were free. They can vote. I explained history. Jellybean counts, literacy tests, exclusions, Jim Crow laws. Why there was not a Day of Emancipation of Slavery Day like there is in Brazil, Puerto Rico, and other countries who had slavery and got rid of it and made it an official Bank Holiday.
It triggered interesting discussions. One woman from Syria asked me why secular government is such an important part of US citizenship? Isn't being a Christian more important?
So many questions.
We studied the history of the US Flag. Thirteen stripes. Red and White. Why? Each represents the 13 original colonies of the USA and they needed to memorize them. Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Delaware, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia, Maryland, New Hampshire.
Those were the Eastern seaboard states. The Core of the USA. The other states became over time part of the 50 states. From the oldest state.
Delaware(1787) – The First State.
Delaware was the first colony to ratify the U.S. Constitution, and by doing so, became the first state.
To the Youngest state.
Which is Hawaii. Admitted on the 21st day of August 1959.
So the entire process of making the Union happen and completing it? Is a long time.
Delaware December 7th, 1787.
This whole experiment with democracy in the Americas is fairly new. And young.
Ironically, Joe Biden is from Delaware the oldest state. And Barack Obama was from the youngest state. Hawaii. And they were on the ticket together. If Obama had been born in August of 1959 before the incorporation of Hawaii into statehood? Would he have qualified for the presidency? Lol. He was born in August of 1961.
If you study government closely enough and you study all the forms of organizing government closely you do become able to see what is wrong, what is going right, and why something is done in government and why it is also buried or never discussed. But if you are intelligent about a scholarly study of it? You should go to the Library of Congress. All the major political debates that happen in a nation's political life are often discussed on the Record in that place. It is an archive.
What is fascinating are the obvious realities of the reasons behind many policies. It is very interesting. You figure out why so many people remain incredibly ignorant about obvious violations of the Constitution and the reasoning behind it all. It is there. Written down in black and white for all to see. The issue is why so many people in their public school system NEVER STUDY IT.
JohnRawls wrote:In a lot of cases your voting participation is heavily depepdent on your subjective opinion of the democratic process. People who constantly say that nothing changes, democracy doesn't exist and corporations rule everything etc are primarily responsible for lower voter turnout actually. Well that and general easiness to vote which is mostly related to basic needs fulfilment which is a 0 problem in Western countries.
The too long don't wanna write more is that people that/who chiefly wine about democracy are the primary factors that persuade people not to vote unless you live in a dictatorship or autocracy where such stance is by default BY DESIGHN like in Russia so its easier to forge elections without much fuss.
@JohnRawls the reality is that most people really do not want to become involved in many things they consider 'controversial'. Authority figures tell them one thing. The media says another thing.
I used to teach government classes to adults. Mostly young people from the ages of 18-24. It was interesting. Many of them never understood government or how it worked in the United States until they took a required class like Government 101. I taught that basic class for a year. I was surprised at the amount of young people entering college for the first time who would tell me, 'I never understood what the purpose of having checks and balances were about in the USA.' They never really understood how their own government worked. There was a piece on Political Action Committees. PACs.
They were fascinated by how that worked. They were interested in why there was a separation between church and state. How it was written into the US Constitution. Why? They wanted to know the whys of it all. Why this or why that?
No one took the time to explain that to them until they took the Government 101 in college. I asked them, 'what did you learn in high school?'. Government and civics is an elective in many high schools. It never used to be. So you have now some electives like 'tennis 101', 'Cheerleading 101', 'Chess Club' and so on that you take instead of Government. Government sounds BORING to these teens. So they choose not to take it in high school. They never learn anything about social science or government as a consequence. In many high schools you do not have to take any foreign languages in high school. In Colorado if you did not take at least three years of a foreign language in high school, you can still get your high school diploma, you can go on to a vocational school or a community college and get an associate's degree or graduate as an auto mechanic, a welder, etc without ever studying either government, civics, history, social studies or a foreign language.
In college you have to take three years of foreign language if you never took any in high school. But high school in the USA for foreign language study is very weak in general. Often you can't get one teacher who is going to teach you three years of say French, Italian or Spanish consecutively. So they wind up taking one semester of French, basic Italian for another semester, one semester of Spanish and so on and never get beyond basic level of any of them. They never practice and it is soon forgotten. Same for civics and government.
I also would give citizenship classes to immigrants in the USA. I would often get questions from immigrants that were really interesting. They often learned about government for the first time in their lives. They came from nations originally in which they often had limited educations. And they often did not really understand the form of government of the nation they came from and much less the nation they were applying to become citizens of.
I would have the most interesting conversations with the immigrants. I remember one Mexican woman asking me in Spanish why January 16th was a holiday that all the banks were closed in the USA? I told her it was MLK, Jr. day. Why was he so important? I said he was a Civil Rights leader. That then became why did a Civil Rights movement become necessary in the USA if the US Constitution said all men were created equal, and had the right to pursue happiness? And the Civil War of the US meant that all people were free. They can vote. I explained history. Jellybean counts, literacy tests, exclusions, Jim Crow laws. Why there was not a Day of Emancipation of Slavery Day like there is in Brazil, Puerto Rico, and other countries who had slavery and got rid of it and made it an official Bank Holiday.
It triggered interesting discussions. One woman from Syria asked me why secular government is such an important part of US citizenship? Isn't being a Christian more important?
So many questions.
We studied the history of the US Flag. Thirteen stripes. Red and White. Why? Each represents the 13 original colonies of the USA and they needed to memorize them. Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Delaware, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia, Maryland, New Hampshire.
Those were the Eastern seaboard states. The Core of the USA. The other states became over time part of the 50 states. From the oldest state.
Delaware(1787) – The First State.
Delaware was the first colony to ratify the U.S. Constitution, and by doing so, became the first state.
To the Youngest state.
Which is Hawaii. Admitted on the 21st day of August 1959.
So the entire process of making the Union happen and completing it? Is a long time.
Delaware December 7th, 1787.
This whole experiment with democracy in the Americas is fairly new. And young.
Ironically, Joe Biden is from Delaware the oldest state. And Barack Obama was from the youngest state. Hawaii. And they were on the ticket together. If Obama had been born in August of 1959 before the incorporation of Hawaii into statehood? Would he have qualified for the presidency? Lol. He was born in August of 1961.
If you study government closely enough and you study all the forms of organizing government closely you do become able to see what is wrong, what is going right, and why something is done in government and why it is also buried or never discussed. But if you are intelligent about a scholarly study of it? You should go to the Library of Congress. All the major political debates that happen in a nation's political life are often discussed on the Record in that place. It is an archive.
What is fascinating are the obvious realities of the reasons behind many policies. It is very interesting. You figure out why so many people remain incredibly ignorant about obvious violations of the Constitution and the reasoning behind it all. It is there. Written down in black and white for all to see. The issue is why so many people in their public school system NEVER STUDY IT.
La historia de mi amor
se pudiera encontrar
en cada corazón,
en cada soledad.
Silvio Rodriguez
se pudiera encontrar
en cada corazón,
en cada soledad.
Silvio Rodriguez
MAGA, MAGA, MAGA 
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