Politics & Government
Carlucci Talks To Middle School Social Studies Class
State Senator spoke to his former teacher's class
State Sen. David Carlucci returned to some familiar turf Friday afternoon, as he attended Ria Malloy’s seventh-grade social studies class at Felix Festa Middle School in West Nyack.
The last time Carlucci was in her class was as a student. On Friday, he came as a guest speaker to talk to Malloy’s class about government.
“It’s great, but not only because he’s a state representative,” Malloy said. “He’s one of them. This is who he is. He came from here, from right where the students are right now. It’s that you can be anything you want to be. It’s just great that Senator Carlucci came through this building.”
Carlucci spoke to the students about his role in the state senate, as well as some current hot button issues. The students were attentive and in tune with the world around them, asking Carlucci questions about the recent bombing at the Boston Marathon, gun control and a rather detailed question about the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protect Act (CISPA). Malloy said she thinks part of the reason her students are so up on current events is because she has them watch or read the news regularly for homework.
Another student asked about cyber bullying. Carlucci said that when he was in school, none of the students had cell phones and the internet wasn’t nearly as widespread as it is now, which has increased bullying.
“Bullying definitely existed, there’s no question about it. It was tough, especially in junior high, a very tough time. If there was bullying it kind of stayed where it happened whether it was in the neighborhood or it was here in school,” he said. “The problem now with cyber bullying is that it just follows you. That’s the real problem that we’re dealing with, and you have pictures and you have Facebook, blogs, text messaging, things like that where it becomes an even more serious problem. The bigger problem too is it stays there and it can stay there forever.”
Carlucci also talked to the students about the setup of governments, including the two-party system. He said he thinks people are fed up with “hyper partisanship” and they want their representatives to work together.
“I’m a Democrat and my philosophy is, look, I believe in Democratic ideas, but the bottom line is I want to get stuff done,” he said. “What I’ve tried to do is work in both sides of the aisle, work with Democrats, work with Republicans so that we can get common sense stuff done.”
One student asked about what issues Carlucci has been working on and wants to work on more coming up. The senator talked to students about the recent increase in minimum wage, trying to lower unemployment rates for veterans and making college more affordable. He also spoke to them a bit about his time as chair of Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities Committee.
“The mind, to me, is really exciting because it’s something that really controls everything we do,” he said. “When you think about it, we actually know very little about the brain and we’re learning stuff out all the time. New pharmaceutical products that are developed, new ways that we treat certain behaviors [and] ways that we learn all come from how we use our brain and the way out brain reacts to certain things and the way it develops. What’s exciting to me is that there’s a new priority, that people are realizing that we need to have an emphasis on mental health and research.”
