I Teach

A unique challenge presented itself this week. The topic for our one class meeting this week (fall break) was health care. So how do you convince a bunch of 20 year olds to care about the health care system in the U.S.? I'm still not sure. I settled on just trying to explain how our health care system works and how it has changed in the last 100 years. I also told them some personal experiences and related some stories about people who had been screwed by the health care system here, and I even had them read an article about a woman who died because they just cut medicaid here in TN, but I just don't think it is possible to adequatley convey how much energy and time it takes to deal with a bureacratic structure that seems, at every turn, to be set up against you while lots of people make a ton of money off of your "care." It's so overwhelming that many people just decide not to pursue health care at all unless it is absolutely necessary, which of course, is bad for us ethically and morally, as well as economically, because then we are footing the bill through emergency rooms (as taxpayers) rather than insurance and HMO executives taking a pay cut. It's a regressive form of taxation in its most insidious incarnation, pitting taxpayers against one another while leaving the wealthy without responsibility. Sucks. But I don't think they got that part of it. I think they listened and believed me, but I don't think they GOT it, you know?

Also, my students have had a really rough semester. One kid was involved somehow in a shooting on campus, one student just had her roommate killed in a car crash over fall break, another is on call from the D.A's office because she has been subpeoned to give a statement in a case against a thief on campus. And of course there's our favorite student from the last post who LOVES the class but never comes (he came again on Thursday even after I told him there was no way he could pass). All of this in addition to the usual litany of late arrivers, sleepers and seniors. All of this from 25 students. Sometimes I feel like Mr. Belding in a season of Saved By the Bell.
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