A-political

I am a substitute teacher at a local college. I love my job. I can say yes; I can say no. I never know when I'll be called, but I usually say yes, even when I have only an hour or so to prepare for a class. Several weeks ago, I was called twice to sub, both times in composition classes. The professor who was scheduled to teach these classes was ill. These were the first two classes of this fall term, increasing the pressure on me to do a good job of teaching yet knowing very little about the methods the professor planned to use for instructing these students. However, I was able to get enough information to teach what I think were adequate beginning instructions for both the Composition 1101 and the Composition 1102 classes. I knew that I was to teach a writing technique necessitating the ability to determine cause and effect, and I wanted the class to be certain they knew what they were doing and what to look for. I therefore came up with some hypothetical topics which I would have groups brainstorm for cause and effect. I assigned one group the Tea Party movement. Watching them as they were getting started, I saw that they were somewhat perplexed with their assigned topic. One student had a handheld device out and was googling the topic. When I intervened, asking the problem, they said, "Are you talking about the Tea Party pre-Revolutionary or the 2009 Tea Party?" I was aghast that they had almost no idea about this movement which is in the papers daily and revolves around the likes of Sarah Palin. Are our students totally ignorant of the politics of the day? I don't know for sure, but if this class is any indication, political information is not reaching our young people.