universal health care is stupid.

When I was leading a discussion in class yesterday a student made the above remark. I sighed and climbed upon my soapbox to inform them that when we are having a discussion they are not allowed to make statements or arguments such as "X is dumb.", "Y is retarded.", or "Z is gay." because those statements do not lead us to any higher understanding. I instructed them that if they are going to give an opinion it needs to be backed up by something other than an insufficient adjective. The student then rephrased his sentence and said, "Universal health care is stupid because it increases your taxes." Hallelujah! By him finshing his argument I was able to then elaborate on that and present a complete picture of universal health care/higher taxes and therefore the students could then make an informed judgement on the issue. Getting them to think is so great. I am still working on the kids in the group that wrote this bullet point on their poster, "Saddam leads a country of oppression and is currently working with terrorist groups to destroy the west", ignoring the overall subjectivity of that statement, I asked the group if they saw any major flaw in what they wrote. "No." So, you don't think it is a little outdated? "Oh, well, that is just what was in the article we read so we wrote it on here." I then tried to communicate the importance of thinking beyond the words they read on the pages. It's only the beginning of October, maybe there is still hope.

Oh, and teaching is exhausting. Fun, and worth it, but seriously exhausting.