I've just completed my first three weeks of classes at school. I haven't really had time to write lately because I've spent the majority of my time reading, studying and pondering the notes given in both my classes. And I am really enjoying my classes! This might be the best idea I ever had.
My American Government class is so good it makes me want to get involved in politics. I had a Government class in high school; it was a required class (along with Economics) to graduate high school in the 90's. But Dr. Grant reminds me of my German teacher in high school that I loved so much. Instead of making a boring (and sometimes infuriating) subject even more so, he uses his anecdotal style to make a story out of it. He knows a lot of "fun facts" and has a dozen stories that relate the subject and can bring it to life better than a professor who stands up and reads from the textbook all period, then has you write out a bunch of definitions and memorize them. I know not everyone learns and recalls the same way, but his particular style helps me remember things when I'm stuck on an essay question or something of the like. Most kids these days seem to have been taught in this "This is the answer I want on the test. Memorize it" style. Memorization is the lowest form of learning, so they never seem to develop a good logic and thought process. They aren't good at listening to a proper lecture and taking notes from it unless they're being spoon fed via chalkboard or projector. (At least, this is what I'm seeing out of my classmates.) Dr. Grant told us, "I want you to think; come up with your own theories and decisions, and back them up with logic and reason." When he said those words in class one day, I instantly knew that I would enjoy his class.
I had no idea how much though! I am absolutely loving this class! We studied the framers, and the political time surrounding the creation of our current form of government during the Constitutional Convention. Our lecture had been heavily about the Virginia and New Jersey Plans, and the arguments that lead to the Great Compromise. That night I was re-reading that portion of the book and reviewing my notes and making index cards on that particular topic, and happened to notice something James Madison said in Federalist 51. "In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself." The framer's believed that people are inherently self-interested (the "look out for number one" attitude) and Madison showed that he agreed. Then I looked at the Virginia and New Jersey Plans themselves. The Virginia Plan was written by Madison and was also known as the "Large State Plan", and it included proportional representation based on population. The small states countered with the New Jersey Plans, which included equal representation (two representatives from each state). This argument threatened to break up the whole Convention when the small states threatened to walk out after the vote for the Virginia Plan. They finally were able to come to the Great Compromise, which created a House and a Senate to make up Congress; the House with proportional representation and the Senate with equal representation who depended on each other to pass legislature. Does this not reveal that the founder's beliefs were, indeed, correct? The small states wanted equal representation because it would be most beneficial to them. The large states wanted proportional representation because it would be most beneficial to them. Madison and his fellows all were terrified of tyranny and corruption (which is why our government is so convoluted) yet the very things they created were corrupt! Yes, they did settle on a compromise that pleased both parties, but the original plan was biased to one side or another in order to gain political power. There are even "official" names for the little corrupt things politicians do, like pork-barrel spending and gerrymandering. Madison, Jefferson and Hamilton were even involved in what I feel is a minor scandal, when they traded Hamilton the federal reserve for a vote. They traded something in order to get something else. Like when you trade money for food at the grocery store. It was a bribe of the earliest kind, a back alley deal to garner support.
The more we learn about how the government works, the more I see how corrupt it is, even from its framing. It's like they have cheat codes to play the game of politics. While this bothers me, I've never thought if it before. It really put me in touch with the subject, which lead me to want to study further. By the time I got to the test, the information I was so worried about committing to memory was there, on the little ponderances and brain farts I had while reading the chapter. We had our first test the other day, and while I was hoping for another 100 to go with my math test score, but I got a 90 due to careless, stupid mistakes and the result of not reading everything thoroughly. I lost 8 points to the multiple choice (but, in defense, the answers available were "tricky"; they had similar meaning and I guess my mind was rushing) and 2 point to my essay because I totally forgot to write a paragraph. I had the paragraph in my mind but I guess my pencil was in a different place when I thought of it because, yeah, left out a whole paragraph of information I meant to include. I even had my outline written down! Ugh, been kicking myself in the ass since Thursday for that.
Even my math class has me feeling great, despite the subject matter being what made me hate math so much in Algebra 2 my sophomore year of high school. When I was a young student, in math we were taught to "show our work", and everybody had to follow the same method to find a solution to a problem. I have a more creative problem solving process (which is odd because I'm a very logical person) and always got bad marks in math in my middle school years because while I could get the answer correct, I didn't get the answer in the correct way, so they would mark the question wrong. If I didn't show my work and just wrote the answer down, even if the answer was correct, I got the question wrong. So I have a lot of problems learning higher math. I get a lot of anxiety because when I don't understand the method the teacher explains and try to figure it out on my own, I always think my answer is wrong or get so worked up about working through a long equation that I just want it to be over with and rush my way through and make careless mistakes. Thankfully, my math teacher is freaking awesome.
Mr. Hartman has stressed time and time again that there are numerous ways to solve these equations, and that he doesn't care how we get the answer so long as we can do the math and figure it out. Music to my ears! All of the graphing of curves and lines and equations is starting to make so much more sense now. It flew over my head like a DC10 when I was in Algebra 2, and my teacher was a freaking bitch. She was one of the, "You're an honors student, figure it out" kind of teachers that I hated in school. She frequently would leave our class to be taught by one of my fellow classmates while she went off for a twenty minute smoke break. Mr. Hartman explains everything thoroughly and doesn't get aggravated when we have to ask many questions about the same problem. He's got a great sense of humor and I'm actually enjoying my math class. I honestly can't wait to go back on Monday, because I didn't understand part of our homework and am eager to have him explain it so that I can make sure I understand. I made a 100 on my first math test and plan on doing the same again.
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