Am I expecting too much of my class when I am disappointed and/or surprised that none of them were aware that the CIA has been using water-boarding as a form of interrogation or that none of them even know what water-boarding is?
I don’t often think of myself as being that much of an adult. And, I don’t really think of myself as being up on current events (my major source of political information is The Daily Show). Am I misguided?
nope, they’re really clueless. i hate to say this, because every older generation says this about the one just one step younger than them, but i think in this case it’s true:
18-25 yr olds are mostly blissfully unaware of the larger world around them. they’re issue-aware — global warming, etc. — but only as much as their media outlets of choice allow them to be. and their media outlets of choice largely discourage them from following up on bad news.
i’ve had SEVERAL students over the last 18 months say something like “they’re just looking at the negatives” or some such in their papers, esp. when dealing with criticism of current US policy.
like, “oh, forget what THEY say. they’re just being partisan.”
torturing humans isn’t partisan. it is, for lack of a better word, a sin.