No discussion of election at dd' school? - Page 2

[JaneyD]

Not only was there plenty of election talk at my 8th grade daughter's school, the middle schoolers voted to hold a celebratory dance on Friday night. What did they call it?

"Barack 'n Roll."

I'm so thankful the WASL is optional at her school.

[smilingmomma]

I'm surprised. I work at a fairly conservative (for me! I'm very liberal) and traditional school and we had the kids do a Mock Vote in my 1st grade classroom. At first, I was going to substitute the candidates and have the kids vote on things like animals, veggies, or books. However, the curriculum coordinator of my grade urged us to have our students vote on the real candidates. We used Scholastic's special weekly reader election material, which came with mock voting cards. Made it all easy. Kids enjoyed it.

Obama Won 18 to 2!!!!!! I was a happy teacher.

[Mamax3]

My daughter is in the 4th grade and she and her classmates held an election, making posters and such. She loved it....and I am so proud of her poster. My son is in the 2nd grade and he and his classmates voted in the election at school too. My 4 year old knew who was running for president, simply through listening to family discussions. I also took them with me to the voting both because I went on my way to taking them to school so they each got "I voted" stickers from the election officials when we left.

I was going to add, the scholastic weekly reader was all about the election, our school subscibes to this so my kids came home with it.

[dancingmama]

DD goes to a pretty progressive school, and they are very tuned in to current events, with flexible curriculum. They chose not to do a mock election this year since the school is hugely populated by a democratic/liberal/progressive demographic, and they didn't want kids whose parents supported McCain to feel terrible. I get it, and didn't mind.

[Thalia the Muse]

My second grader's public school classroom (combined first through third graders) had two mock elections -- one for president, and one for choosing something like class color, do you want orange or blue, something like that -- and she got an I Voted sticker and a donut. They also spent the month in social studies talking about elections and the three branches of government, and brought home Scholastic News papers about the candidates' families and such.

I think she ended up with more information than some adult voters!

[Kirsten]

Originally Posted by mojumi

a general discussion of why we vote, who can vote, and the basics of the democratic system seems pretty important to discuss in school!

I agree. I can't imagine not even mentioning something so historic.

The private elementary where I work and where dd2 attends 3rd grade had a mock election for the presidential candidates (well, the main two). Obama won 75 to 25%. The teacher was very non-committal about the parties/candidates, but I wore my Obama shirt to work since it was election day. Most kids voted for the president their parents supported, without knowing too much about why. But one little girl told me she voted for McCain and asked me if I knew why. I said I didn't know but would she tell me? She smiled and said "My mom loves Obama; I just voted McCain to tease her!" Kids!