Monday Miscellany:

Is there any better time for teaching high school government than right now? I didn't think so.

On the first day back from the break I surveyed my honors and college prep government classes. Of the thirty students, five were planning on voting for Ron Paul. No other candidate received more than one commitment. Paul has had a surprising resonance with the young. Part of it has been powerful grass roots involvement of his supporters on the internet. I will not dare to speculate on other reasons for his followers among the young.

I have been busy working on a blog that I created for my honors government class. You can go and check it out here if you wish. It is the first time I have attempted a class blog; my previous school blocked any and all blogs and well as most of the rest of the internet. Now that I have access and a subject that lends itself to the immediacy of the internet, I couldn't help but give it a try. My students are required to read it weekly and to post a comment to any post that begins with "For Discussion." So far it has been a useful tool.

While working on my government blog, I looked up the term "blowback" to determine its exact etymology and connotation. I came across this definition at Dictionary.com (emphasis mine):
Webster's New Millennium™ Dictionary of English
Main Entry: blowback
Part of Speech: n
Definition: an unintended adverse reaction or effect from an action or cause, especially political
Example: The blowback of Bush's ill-made decisions will last for many years.
Etymology: 1968
Usage: also written blow-back
Webster's New Millennium™ Dictionary of English, Preview Edition (v 0.9.7)Copyright © 2003-2008 Lexico Publishing Group, LLC

The example given by the editors at Webster's New Millennium Dictionary of English provided my class with a nice example of the prevalence of bias. Whether accurate or not, the example is a politically charged one and has no place in dictionary.


During a lecture today on the Spanish-American War, I exclaimed, "Butcher Weyler didn't get sent to Cuba to sell rump-roasts to the locals; he came with a mandate to put the Cubans in line." I don't know why I said it, but I did. My students gave me hard time about it and were convinced that I spent some time thinking about and planning the line. I didn't, but I made a note of it for next year.


My eldest son turned seven this past weekend. Happy Birthday son. Here he is firing off the new Nerf-type Bazooka he got for Christmas.



Peace
..._