Government: Slightly Worrisome

Monday was geography, and literally nothing happened. Seriously, we went over the notes for Russia, the former Soviet Union and Central Asia. Nobody said anything stupid. (I know, I was surprised, too.) The only highlight was that my teacher said "Russia is like Canada on steroids." I thought that was funny

Anyway, Tuesday was Government. I get to class, and I notice that Dr. Government is running late. He's never late. He comes in at about five minutes after. No big deal... we get to work.

As he goes on, I notice that he seems a bit off tonight. He's not his normal energetic self and he's quieter than normal. I mean, everyone has an off day now and again, I get that, but he's forgetting things and mumbling and stuttering a lot. Way more than usual.

He's an older dude, I understand that, but he's just way off. I hope he's ok. We go on our break, and he takes longer than normal. Usually, he's back in a prompt 10 minutes and tonight he stretches it out to about fifteen. THEN he forgets his drink, so he has to go all the way back to his office on the complete OTHER side of campus to retrieve it. There goes another ten minutes.

Class is just dead tonight also. Nobody wants to participate, people's heads are down, people aren't taking notes. (That makes me not feel bad when they bomb the test, which is really just reciting your notes.) One guy actually fell asleep. Just before our break, so we had been in class for over an hour by this point... someone SHOWED UP TO CLASS. Really? The lack of effort is baffling.

I'm a little concerned about Dr. Government. I like the guy and I hope it's just him being a little worn out and not something going on upstairs.

There was one dumb moment in the class. I'd say it was one of the damn kids, but it wasn't. The older lady in class wanted Dr. Government to cancel class on the day of this years presidential election because, as she put it, "We're all going to be too preoccupied with that and we won't be able to concentrate on class."

Dr. Government just said, "Maybe I'll bring in a TV and we can leave it on mute so we can just see the updates."

That's totally reasonable. I don't want to have to play catch up and wind up being later in class for a few weeks to play catch up.  The election is NOT going to be finished by 9pm or whenever it is that we're usually out of class at night. In fact, I'd be shocked if all the votes were in by midnight. Weather it's a landslide or a neck and neck race, we won't probably know until after class is done. Aside from that, I'm sure she and I are probably two of about five people in that class, the teacher included, that really give a crap about what is going to happen and what it means for the country after Nov 6, 2012. Nice try, lady.