I do a lot of teaching about failure and how awesome it is. I often say, "That's a great error!" and explain why and I also reward good corrections. I sometimes am pretty careful about how I phrase a correction, depending on the kid and the relationship, but I will also totally belt out a "WRONG!" from time to time when warranted and when the relationship is a teasing one. I will fake mock outrage at a particularly egregious error if I know the student is just not paying attention and can do better, and they grin at me and do better. We have a big session with all our new students about learning to make mistakes big. We talk all the time about working on what's hard for us, not what's easy. We laugh a lot about mistakes.

WTF, gifted teacher, your students will never get to any of this awesomeness!

I don't get voting against your self-interest.

The last several election cycles have made me very cynical about human intelligence.

I didn't used to think that lots and lots of people were total fucking idiots. But now I do.

Yes, there are lots of idiots, and there are also lots of people with different priorities who are making different choices based on the best information they have.

My immediate department at work is a bunch of yellow-dog democrats, and it does my heart good.

My extended family, OTOH, is not having Thanksgiving together for the first year since I can remember (and I'm 41), and it's because of the election. No matter who wins, 3/4 of the family will be giant jackholes either gloating or whining and spewing racist garbage. One aunt thinks Sarah Palin would make an excellent POTUS (no, seriously), and the other aunt told my mom, in so many words, that she will burn in hell because she thinks gay people should be allowed to marry.

I just want this fucking election to be over.

I'm really cynical too. I feel like so much of what people think is just "me me me" and "mine mine mine." You don't get my money. You don't get the same rights I have. You don't get anything I have, because I deserve it and you don't.

I'm pretty sure my next door neighbor voted for Obama. *waves at amyth* Once outside my little liberal enclave there are an awful lot of Romney signs. Eh, Silver projects that Obama will take it without NC. Still, it was nice to be in an allegedly blue state for a while.

The last several election cycles have made me very cynical about human intelligence.

H.L. Mencken said that "Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard."

In non-election, non-pie news, there was a great piece on the World about a 40 year old realtor who is filling in as a practice goalie during the NHL lockout: [link] No transcript, but a surprisingly charming interview.

K is sad about the lack of hockey.

and there are also lots of people with different priorities who are making different choices based on the best information they have.

Well their priorities are wrong and they should feel bad. They should wake up the day after they voted, and think, "What the fuck was I thinking? I don't hate women. Why did I do that? Jesus, I suck." And then they should feel queasy all day and have a restless sleep for two weeks, getting haggard and red-eyed. And when they try to tell their friends that they were sorry they should face scorn! "Too fucking late now, man! Too fucking late." And they should not be invited to parties and sit alone at home trying to play Halo but nobody wants to play with them. Because of the shunning and the scorn.

I feel like that, too, Dana, but then people will open up veins and stuff for the red cross when there's a disaster. It's a strange dissonance.

Money is tight for me, but it's going to cost me like, one chinese take-out dinner a year to pay for better schools. WTF? I'll eat a bowl of cereal for better schools. And I can say that for people, and they'll start going mealy mouthed about how the teacher unions are at fault and so DONT TOUCH MY LO MEIN. But then that same person will start going nuts to ship the canned goods off to Staten Island. I scratch my head and wonder.