Watching Katie's interview of Sarah, as a Middle School teacher of history and comparative anthropology, I KNEW what I was seeing and I froze in rapt fear:
I see it sometimes from some of my best "quick-study" Middle Schoolers. I affectionately call this particular mastery deficit the "salad approach scam." They just toss a bunch of stuff together and serve it cold, hoping it'll satisfy the requirements.
It has a special breathless rush to it combined with sudden knights-move jumps in content. The short phrases are perfectly memorized, BUT are combined together as an incoherent mishmash since the student does not really understand the human nature and historical connections to tie the ideas and events together. They know the words and phrases, but don't really "get it."
Hey, it "sounds good," you know?
If I am right, then I'm betting the McCain team is shitting blood before the up-coming, prime-time NATIONAL TEST of their student, this Thursday.
See below for an educator's perspective about the special Hell I'm guessing she and her handlers are going through, and what I predict will happen to student Palin. And, how follow-up questions will be the killers.
Full Disclosure: I AM a Middle School teacher who LOVES teaching and mentoring hundreds of young teen-agers every year, so yes, I MUST be a bit nuts. :) But, I think this read might be worth some time on a Saturday night.
Smart, quick-study Middle Schoolers are especially prone to trying to pull this scam since some of their characteristics as an age-group include: 1) that they are still clueless about the VAST amount of things they don't know: 2) they grossly over-estimate their readiness for EVERYTHING; 3) style is all for them: 4) and they really still believe that using big words makes them sound smart enough to fool stupid adults. (Bless their hearts!) They also have a wonderful sense of invincibility and are close enough to childhood to still have a strong dose of magical thinking.
If I wish and hope and say it loud enough, the fairy will live and the teacher will give me an "A" for the nonsense that has good lines copped from the web and delivered with style.
The killer move is one I accidently did to a student in this situation early on in my career (and I feel BAD about it, but it was an honest mistake!). I asked a SINCERE, not meant as a gotcha, question, as a follow-up to try to HELP the kid out by giving them a chance to explain themselves more clearly. The house of cards just fell.
As a teacher, I learned from this and when I see a performance like Sarah just gave with Katie, it is one of my key signals to circle back with this smart kid , gather my duck close for some good old fashioned, deep story telling, role playing, debating, biography videos from the History Channel etc. in after school tutoring to make sure they don't go forward with a "black hole" in their sense of historical connections and continuity. Then, they get another chance to shine and show their real stuff! BUT this takes TIME.
It is NOT a matter of cramming more. A really wonderful Instructional Design professor at IU told me one of the best things I've ever learned about learning and teaching:
The thing that separates a MASTER from a NOVICE is the transitions. Anyone can do a bit of a task or job very well. The MASTER makes it flow through the long sequence of a sustained performance. And, everyone knows the mastery when they see it. Teach the content AND the transitions.
Ivor Davies, IU School of Education
I have really good news for everyone! We keep trying to argue the content points to the low information voters who don't care about the logical points we are so good at "winning with the facts," BUT EVERY human seems programmed to recognize MASTERY of the transitions! All humans "know it when they see it."
I think the McCain team is running into A LOT of connection black holes with Gov. Palin, and they are panicking trying to get her to cram harder to "fix it." I'm sure Sarah is trying hard to memorize what they are throwing at her, but she doesn't have the deep and broad foundation to connect the content points. At some point, they will resort to a strategy like this: If they ask this, say this.
That won't work either. it will just rattle her more since it will overload her short term memory.
Governor Palin's recent "salad" performances demonstrates that her type of learning deficit has nothing to do with intelligence. Her deficit is based on the quality of her educational foundation and the history of her efforts to be an engaged, curious, self-directed, continuous life-long learner. And, I believe she gave us a telling insight about herself in this regard:
Alaska Business Monthly: We've lost a lot of Alaska's military members to the war in Iraq. How do you feel about sending more troops into battle, as President Bush is suggesting?
Palin: I've been so focused on state government, I haven't really focused much on the war in Iraq. I heard on the news about the new deployments, and while I support our president, Condoleezza Rice and the administration, I want to know that we have an exit plan in place; I want assurances that we are doing all we can to keep our troops safe. Every life lost is such a tragedy. I am very, very proud of the troops we have in Alaska, those fighting overseas for our freedoms, and the families here who are making so many sacrifices.
A fully engaged, life-long learner couldn't help learning about a war we have been engaged in for five long years, now. Adding in that she is a politician and a mother of a boy who is at risk of being wounded or killed in that very war, her admitted lack of knowledge about this huge issue shows that she is not much of a self-directed, life-long learner, at all. In that regard, she really is "like many Americans," but the average Joan is not presenting herself as "ready to be the leader of a super-power" in a complex and dangerous world at a critical turning point in world history.
What kind of foundation is Sarah Palin missing?
For example, how can you REALLY understand the complexities of Iraq, Iran, Turkey, and the Kurds without having some in-depth understanding of how the situation today, really connects with the historical events of Ancient Mesopotamia, The Persian Empire, the Ottoman Empire, the emergence and development of Islam, The Crusades, The Age of Empiricism ... let alone the Oil Age? Additionally, does Sarah understand our involvement with the Shah and the Savak? Understanding drilling in Alaska is simply not enough to understand the geopolitical implications of oil reserves, today, let alone how the major powers in the world have all fallen when they failed to divorce themselves from the energy source that fueled their rise to power in order to transition to the new, emerging one. I have little confidence that Sarah has much more than a vague awareness of some of the key things you really have to understand about THIS ONE FACET of foreign policy. Now, let's add the history of Russian, European and Chinese relationships into the mix as we consider Iran's nuclear efforts, while they are remembering their proud history of having been the Persian Empire?
McCain may have this kind of depth and breadth (doubtful since he could not anticipate the Shia-Sunni conflicts that were bound to erupt), but I am certain that Barack Obama does "get the big IT's" I'd bet my house that Barack understands that the Dutch stubborn reliance on wind and refusal to transition to coal like the British cost them their edge and then the British lost out to America when we capitalized on oil as the next energy source. America is at the apex of an energy source shift. It remains to be seen if we will do something that has never been done in history. Will we willingly divorce ourselves from the energy source that allowed us to rise in power and to the next energy source(s) so we can continue to sustain ourselves? Or will we stubbornly and desperately cling to our oil based civilization and simply decline like all the others have before us?
I KNOW Barack "get's this," because even when he was asked which programs he'd have to cut due to the bail-out, he led with preserving the transformation of our energy base. It was a FOLLOW-UP question that demonstrated his deep understanding and awareness that THAT investment had to be the priority when pushed to consider where to invest our shrinking treasures.
THAT foundation of educational understanding about HISTORY and the world is what is sooooo different about our supposed neophyte and Sarah.
The Obama Campaign Team can CRAM Obama to handle whatever since he already has the connections in his brain to connect new ideas and facts to. The content stuff they are feeding Barack sticks and simply adds to what he already understands since he doesn't have "black holes" in his understanding of history.
Sarah does not have this foundation, so the cramming sessions must just be awful for Governor Palin. I'm not saying she isn't as smart as Barack. Maybe she is. That's not the point. She has done well in ALASKA being a quick study on sound bites and playing some nasty politics as she road a wave in history in a small state. Unfortunately, it persuaded both she and her husband, along with some magical, religious thinking, that she is what God intends for the nation. If she gets a follow-up question from Gwyn ... I expect that she will crash and burn.
The beauty of this strange, funny, and improbable experiment we have in the United States of America is that we keep getting leaders like Barack Obama just when we need them most.
Conclusion: We NEED Barack Obama as President, and so does the world. As for the VP debate, I hope Joe will muzzle his attack dog tendencies and hide his disbelief when Sarah starts to serve up "salad" responses. If team Obama is on top like they have been, Biden should just focus on strongly answering his questions and appearing kind and respectful toward Sarah letting the moderator float the helpful follow-ups will be enough.