1. My favorite section of the class was when we learned about where all the money that the United States doesn't have goes. I didn't realize how ignorant i was when it came to the state of our nation, and after learning that we are 11.4 TRILLION dollars in debt i thought that was a little ridiculous. Also it made me realize how irresponsible some of our nations leaders have been.

2. The least interesting section of the class was the judiciary section. This section was boring to me because that whole section of government isn't as "sexy" as the others. it doesn't have as much to do with the up beat and interactive stuff like the legislative branch does. also i think its a little boring because once you are on the supreme court you don't leave until you retire or die... and that's just not as fast pace.

3. My knowledge of politics and government before this course was very very minimal. Now i wouldn't be completely honest if i said i know all there is to know because that is impossible. although i don't feel as dumb when talking about it. i have also realized that it takes more than being registered and voting to be an active part of our society. that is what i think i learned the most about politics. i learned now that its important to know things like about the county where you live because that history is still affecting us today. knowing things like how a bill becomes a law is helpful, but that is a minor fact. the most important thing that i learned is how politics work, and how i can be an active part of it.

4. My friends aren't that politically active, some of them didn't vote in the fall. But they are the ones that are simply uneducated on the facts that will affect them. Overall my peers are very politically involved and realize that the choices we make today are going to be the laws and decisions that affect us when we are independent of our parents and out in the real world. So hopefully by the next election my close friends will be more active and willing to talk about politics like the majority of our peers already are.

5. To make my commitment stronger to my country i can get more involved. I know that i can do more than just voting. and with me becoming a teacher i know i will be seeing things that i don't like about Illinois education system. i think then i will be more likely to take a stand. I think that a big thing for me will be to participate in local elections and be more active within those because those are the choices that will effect me more than the election of our president.

6. Overall the course was well taught. I would have to applaud you on making the course interesting and witty. That was my greatest fear that you were going to be a boring, comb over, politician filling us with bogus boring information. But i was pleased to find out that you were none of those. I also thank you for being able to relate to us and giving us the respect that we deserve. that last class when we went over the article by Bartlett let me know that you truly care about your students and its refreshing to have that happen. Thanks again :)

After going to the McLean County Museum I learned a few things. I learned that McLean was more eclectic than i gave it credit. I didn't realize that there were so many different groups of people collected in the heart of Illinois such as German, Irish, African, Yankees, and upland southerners. it also made me laugh when i read about how the German's thought that alcohol was essential makes me proud to be a pure German!

Things like that little tid bit of information is important to know about the area in which you live. i think its important because the more educated you are the more connected to your location. I think that after visiting something like this it made me appreciate my heritage and where i have essentially grown up my whole life a little more. then you ask, why haven't i visited something like this before. and my answer is blunt, because its not that crucial for my every day life, and when i was younger it was boring. I think of something like that now through the eyes of a future educator. i see it as an opportunity to get students within my classroom active in their histories, and interacting with history. But when i was younger and still today that isn't how i was taught therefore that kind of stuff wasn't familiar to me.

Politics and history of anything connect, not only politics and McLean county. the root of our nations development and McLean counties development is based on the struggles of past politicians, and government to get it to the place that its at now. And learning about the smaller areas of politics/government that occurred in McLean county make the larger scheme of things make sense.

My additional thought about the museum is that its overall layout was very cool. i can see myself wanting to bring student that will one day be in my classroom to something similar to that. it didn't sugar coat things (KKK outfit, ew!) and it was a real eye opener.

My familiarity with McLean County, and its political history is very minor. This is most likely due to the fact that I have grown up in Tazewell county, and haven't really been interested in politics until just recently. Honestly i am completely lost when it comes to talking about McLean county besides the fact that i know its large, wealthy, and contains 4 colleges (isu, heartland, Wesleyan, and Lincoln community college).

I know it is probably important that i know about McLean county because i go to school there, and because the decisions that are made by politicians affect me more directly than the decisions made in Tazewell county. Although, the older that i get the more information i seem to pick up about the locations where i live. such as next year i will be living in Springfield (i don't know the county yet), but i have already been researching information about my soon to be residence because i know that if i lack knowledge it will directly affect me when teaching there. also because education has so much to do with politics the older i get and the closer i come to actually getting a real job the more important it is for me to start getting to know what kind of place i want to teach in, as well as the politics that are the building block for the school.

Therefore the answer to the question, "does it matter?" is yes, it matters. obviously i haven't changed that much, but i am progressively getting better at being more educated.

Blog Number 5

I am and am not surprised by where if fit on the chart. I knew that when I was taking this that i would be on the left somewhere. I am also not surprised that I am not as far left as some people one, because i didn't know what some of the questions in the test were asking and two because i do hold some right side views. I am surprised at the fact that i was closer to the authoritarian side of things than the libertarian. I just think of my self as a let the people do what they want kind of person... but after learning stuff through the course i have realized that I do prefer a little more control through the government, and accept more of the restrictions that before i was either uneducated on or just indifferent. Because of the results of this test I would identify more with a Democrat, one that is able to see both sides of the argument, sides with the left more, but is definitely not glued to the party. Like i said before i hold some right side views.

Also, resulting from this test, i am somewhere between Nelson Mandela on the left, Jose Zapatero on the upper right, and Pope Benedict XVI on the upper left. Its kind of hard to compare myself to these people one because they are very influential people and two because i don't know who Jose Zapatero is. I prefer being a democrat because they have more liberal views than the republicans. I believe that there should be health care for all people, that we should find a way to get out of the war (or at least stop sending people in), i believe that the government is responsible for helping our economy. whereas the republicans stand on the fact that some of this should be done by the people within the states. whereas i say that the states don't have the power to accomplish the things that our nation needs.

When looking at both the democrat and republican web sites i had a few different reactions. The republicans site was ridiculous and was waaayyyyy harsh and uncalled for, "the democrats are advancing their agenda...your life is now under their scrutiny." From that all i can say is WOW! The picture of the huge democrat about to squish a civilians head. I can almost not even get past that to look at the issues they stand for, or move through the website... just a little uncalled for in my opinion. They are stuck right now with a democratic president, they should embrace it and do with it whatever they can, not bash basically Americans. The democrats website on the other hand is an ode to Obama. I think my favorite part of the site was the Sonya Sotomayor picture at the top. Its an achievement and the first large thing that the Obama administration has done, and i liked to see it as a poster of achievement right there on the front of the website. One thing that i liked about both sites is if you scroll down they both have their social networking links to youtube, facebook, etc... which i think is neat.