politics makes me sad, but students make me happy

I'm currently watching McCain speak at a charity event. I don't know what the charity is for, but Obama and Hillary, and I'm assuming lots of other important politicians are there. McCain is giving a rather silly, tongue in cheek speech. Obama is giggling, Hillary is nearly falling out of her chair. And I can't help but be sad. I'm sad for what McCain has become. Watching the debates last night (and talking about it with my students today) made me realize how much John McCain has changed during this election. I'm not talking about his politics and views, although I do have a lot of issues with those. But I miss the John McCain that I used to respect. And I get the sense that he does too. The one who didn't resort to gimmicky (dare I say Mavericky?) choices in order to spur his campaign along. The one who truly was an independent, and took pride in that. But mostly I miss actually liking the man. This campaign has made me actively dislike him. And yes, I get that this is politics, and politics is dirty. But I at least used to respect the man who really loved this country and was just power-hungry. Now I'm just sad for him. (and also fearful that he might win)

However, one thing that made me happy today was how into politics some of my students were. In every class we talked about the debate, and we probably could have kept talking about them the entire period. Not every student was into the conversation, but a fair amount were. A lot of them had questions and were actively engaged. In short, it was awesome. One of those teacherly moments that gets you all excited to work with youth. Of course then I had to send someone outside because she couldn;t contain her verbal outbursts and saw one of my students at lunch who was strangely absent during my third period class. But all in all, it was a good day.