I find myself sitting on a fence

Recently I assigned my seniors a synthesis essay. A synthesis essay requires students to gather several resources on a single topic, and synthesize the information found within them. Because it is an election year, what better (and easier) topic than the impending election?


All the kids needed to do was choose a candidate to endorse, research where both candidates stood on the issues they personally found important, and then write their essay. Sounds simple enough, right? I should have known better.


I learned rather quickly that even seniors have a hard time writing essays on this topic. I made it very clear to them that they were not going to be graded on who they chose to endorse, but on how well they supported their arguments using the information they found in their research. As is always the case, they wanted to know who I am going to vote for. I normally don't tell kids, but this time I did. I told them that I tend to be more liberal, so I tend to vote Democratic. But I was quick to add that my husband tends to be far more conservative, so our votes usually cancel the other's out. (*Let me add to this lest my husband want to throttle me: J says he is non-partisan and will vote for the right man for the job. It still amazes me how often, for someone who claims to be non-partisan, he finds the Republican to be the "right man for the job." On the other hand, I have seen him vote for Democrats before, and he tends to vote how I do for school/education specific elections like Superintendent, school board, etc.)


Anyway, when I got the essays back, they were hard for me to grade. The area where I live is VERY conservative. There are far more Republicans than Democrats. This is not usually a problem with adults who respect each other's views to their faces. With teenagers, though, they have not all learned the art of diplomacy or even subtlety. They spout what they have heard, without even knowing if it's true or not.


Suffice it to say, very little about these essays ended up being enjoyable for me. Even putting my own beliefs aside, the kids really didn't perform well...they just don't write very well. We've had to go way back to basics, and I'm hoping that their next essays are better. They are in my school bag, I just can't bring myself to read them yet.

Because nothing else about those dang essays made me smile, I thought I would share my two favorite quotes with you. If nothing else, their naivete shows through, and that's funny stuff.

“When researching John McCain and Barack Obama, I found myself sitting on a fence.” (I bet that's painful...you should probably sit at your desk instead. Or did you mean you found yourself sitting on THE fence?)

“The first step to solve the problem (of immigration) is to secure our boarders first.” (Yeah, spell check didn't catch that one! And it's funny on many levels...)