Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for October 23, 2008

well – it’s funnier than yesterday’s –

By just a little bit…

My best teachers were the ones who let their students challenge them.

Well, runar – I think it depends on how the students challenge.   My son had a habit of correcting his teachers. Some of them thought it was rude. Especially when he was right, which was most of the time!   I was never exactly sure what to tell him, except that he has to be more careful. Some teachers take that sort of thing personally, and will take it out on the student. I think he was fortunate most of his teachers were in a good humor over it.

The good teachers I had expected a sort of formal challenge - you had to be able to marshal your facts and back them up with a good argument. I once had a dispute with a professor over the correct pronunciation of a certain Old English word. My initial reason was that his version didn’t feel right. When he told me that wasn’t good enough, I thought fast and came up with three other words that supported my point; he changed his mind. That’s how the process is supposed to work. A good teacher learns as much from the students as they do.

Challenging a teacher in front of his class is rude. Mr. Harris would better off approaching the teacher in private to present his case, if he had one.

The worst part of Harris’ behavior is he is wasting the time of the entire class. The time to argue with teachers is in smaller, upper-level classes, where everyone has some background.

You folks do understand that this is all about Sarah Palin not answering the questions she’s asked, right?

Well duh, I mean like totally.

Yah see I knew I could count on you guys, Federalist, some kinda union somthing or another that was made up of Lincoln suporters and the like . I knew there was more of them jsut really wasn sure how long ago it had been. And Zipper is sorta in a rut of trying to be a modern day Zonker, and it jsut don’t work for him as well as it did for Uncle Zonk.

To Uncaalby:

ROTFLMELAO!

I can just hear your son now “Teacher, I think too much deference is paid to Kepler and Euclid”.

~~~~~~SARCASM OFF~~~~~~

So… just as Zipper is wasting the time of the entire class by not answering the question, aren’t Governor Palin and the other candidates wasting the time of the entire electorate when they do the same thing? And the heck of it is, we LET them do it.

Of course, our culture also invented stretch pants, the leisure suit, and the designated hitter. Goes to show.

Runar says, “My best teachers were the ones who let their students challenge them.”

My best students are the ones who want to be challenged.

After the V.P. debate, one commentator said that candidates generally do that, and others in this campain have done it – the difference was that Palin expressly acknowledged it.

misterwhite Generally, he was correcting his teacher’s math. And again, usually he was right. One of the nice things about mathematics is that generally there’s no opinion involved. So many subjects being “taught” these days are more of the students memorizing the teacher’s opinion.   BTW he got 100% on his math SAT. He’s a bright kid. Definitely didn’t get it from my side of the family.

Sarah Palin is the only modern political figure I can recall whose statements and appearances play better when they are repeated verbatim on SNL and Doonesbury…

No one ever mocks “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself,” or “ask not what your country can do for you,” but it’s high humor to directly quote the woman who would be one heartbeat away from leadership of the free world.

longtimecomicsfan said: ”…one heartbeat away from leadership of the free world.”

The way things are going, within a couple of years that statement would require her to be, say, president of France or prime minister of India. If/when that happens, it would certainly take a lot of performance anxiety away from our own presidency.

You must admit that few other leaders have needed to deal with what is essentially a “gotcha” media looking for every gaff they can find, particularly when the gaff is from a Republican.   There doesn’t seem to be a lot of fuss made over Obama’s “57 states” or Biden’s surmising what FDR said “on television.”

I also find it interesting how people like to complain about Palin’s supposed “lack of experience” when she would be a “heartbeat from the presidency.”   So instead, they want somebody with LESS experience who would *BE* the president?

Getting back to the cartoon - does anyone but me think that the teacher was putting the student on the spot? I think the teacher knew Harris couldn’t answer the question, and wanted to show HIM up in front of the class. The kid got defensive, that’s all. And that’s all that’s happening, probably, with the questions being thrown at Palin - put her on the spot, and see how defensive she’ll get. Just a thought.

At least Joe Biden knows that the Vice President isn’t, “in charge of the Senate.” Caribou Barbie doesn’t even know what the Vice President’s job is.

stpatme says:

At least Joe Biden knows that the Vice President isn’t, “in charge of the Senate.” Caribou Barbie doesn’t even know what the Vice President’s job is.   Oh, you found another “gotcha” did you? How nice. How wonderful. How – totally irrelevant.   Neither candidate know what their jobs are, having promised us all a truckload of bennies that only Congress can give.   And ignoring that minor detail for a moment, both candidates have promised us all a truckload of bennies that are not authorized in the Constitution.   So, go ahead, see if you can count up the score of “gotcha’s” on either side. Write down a list of things that Biden knows that Palin doesn’t – make a similar list of things Palin knows that Biden doesn’t. Make a similar list for Obama vs. McCain. Make a list of misspeaks, misquotes, and inaccuracies uttered by both sides. See which list is longer.   Bottom line, we’re still dealing with a situation of the choice between voting for the Baby Socialist or the Granddaddy Socialist.   Palin doesn’t strike me as being that much a socialist – which is probably why she generates so much vitriol on the left.

CourageCD, the process works best when it goes both ways.

I think the teacher/media and Zipper/Palin comparisons are both dead on here. Teachers are supposed to ask tough questions and challange their students. We (I am a teacher) gotta push them to grow. The media has to ask tough questions of our politicians or they’ll just get lazy on us.

I watched the Biden/Palin debate and he was clearly the winner. She didnt have anything but smarmy, smug answers.

stpatme is right when saying at least Biden knows the VP job descruption. Palins (incorrect) answer proves she’s going to follow in Cheney’s footsteps trying to unconstitutionally redefine the office of the VP.

UncaAlby has a point as well, all four of the candidates are making promises that have nothing to do with the executive branch, so many things they promise need to be legislated, not done by executive order.

A good sign a candidate is lieing is when they talk about education. Education, by the US Constitution, is solely the business of the states, and not the federal government. No matter how it works out in todays ridiculous bush-whacked system.

Runar: We’re in the same boat in this.

cfortunato says: “Gotcha” questions - holy crap. If you can’t handle Katie Couric, we’re supposed believe you can handle Vladimir Putin?   That would be fine if they asked the same sort of “gotcha” questions of the liberal Democrats, so we could find out whether they could handle Putin. They generally ask some pretty softball questions of the Dems. You can be sure Putin will not treat the president with kid gloves, just because there’s a “D” by his name.   I don’t know if you’ve heard yet, but the New York Times has just come out officially in favor of Obama. Like, this is news? Well, it’s official now.   Their editorial spews out the same set of lies that have become par for the course.

I spent time on both sides of the Big Desk.