I posted last week about the beginning of the election class I'm leading in our homeschool co-op. We do 6-week sessions so I'll post each week on how it's going.
I was really surprised to find some of the kids were so knowledgeable about the process. We had some "what do you know, what do you want to know about elections" time and one boy asked how many more delegates Obama needed! Obviously, some of them are paying attention. And there was a funny, "out of the mouth of babes" moment when one eight-year-old said in a candy-sweet voice, "Hillary Clinton is for keeping children safe and healthy," but then added in an undertone, "Or at least that's what she says."
There's more observations and info about this week's class after the fold.
Everyone, parents and kids, in our group seems really excited about the election. We are a secular but inclusive homeschool co-op. I think the great majority of our members are liberal. I haven't pressed anyone, but a lot of folks seem positive for Obama. The kids asked me point blank who I was rooting for but I said I didn't want to tell them yet because I want the class to be about the process more than the specifics of this race. I was interested to find that one of the kids had moved here from Vermont. I haven't had a chance to talk to his mom yet about Dean but I'm looking forward to it.
I wasn't able to go to classes this week because I'm in training for a new job so I sent an outline along for some other parents to follow.
Week 2: Primary Campaign & Voting
Follow up on questions asked last week—did anyone find the answers?
--How do we vote for mayor and other offices?
--How do people get on money?
--How much does a president get paid?
The goal for homeschooling, at least among the people I know, is to inspire independent learning so while we collected some questions last week, I didn't answer them for the kids. I sent out an email reminder of the things they'd been wondering about. I'll be interested to see if they followed up.
Discuss government fact sheets—break up into groups and let them share what they found out. First break out in similar group (all the kids who did local can get together and check each other's answers, etc.) then break into four groups so that each has a local, state and federal person. Let them tell these small groups what they found out about their level.
This technique was referred to as jigsawing in my resource book. Again, I thought it was a good way to let the kids take charge of their knowledge.
The following information comes from my resource book and I'll post it here under fair use. I tweaked some of it anyway:
Talking about Primaries
Every race begins with the candidate's announcement (some of which we saw last week) that he or she is planning to run for office. In the race for President, candidates usually make their announcements at least one year before Election Day. The primary elections are the races that narrow the field. In these elections, voters decide who their party's candidate will be. Many states have primaries in which all eligible voters can participate. Most presidential primaries take place between January and June of a presidential election year. By tradition, the two earliest contests are in Iowa and New Hampshire. A big win in an early primary can help a candidate in raising funds and gaining the support of other elected officials in their political party.
This year, like 2000, there is no incumbent, a person running for office who already holds the office. This makes for a lively race where several people from a party are running against each other. An incumbent usually doesn't have any members of his or her own party running against him or her for the nomination. Usually there are two sets of primaries, one for each major political party. A voter can cast a ballot in one primary or the other, but not in both. Other offices, such as Senate, House of Representatives, mayor, governor, etc. also compete in primaries.
Instead of primaries, a few states have caucuses attended by members of a political party. At this meeting, members select delegates to state or national nominating conventions.
These were sort of notes for me (or actually, the parent leading the class today) to riff from, asking leading questions to see what the kids knew and to help cover the basics.
Activity: Next week, we'll caucus to choose 2 candidates (favorite place to go with your family in the area) for voting. What is your favorite candidate? Why? What would you tell other people about it to convince them to choose your favorite? Are there things that people don't like about your favorite place? What are they? What can you do about these negatives? Make a poster or write an ad to promote your candidate!
(You can get supplies out and actually have them make the poster or work on the ad in class if you have time and are inclined. You could also ask them to do this at home and bring it next week.)
We're going to have our own mock election but we're using local attractions as our candidates. Some of the kids wanted to run for "class president" or something but at this level, it'd be nothing but a popularity contest and I didn't want to introduce that element. I have to figure out how to run a caucus by next week!
Many people have no idea how citizens register to vote. Most are surprised at how easy and simple the process is. There are three requirements for voting in the United States: 1) Voters must be at least 18 years old; 2) must be citizens of the United States; and 3) must be residents in the town or city where they want to vote. People who have been convicted of a serious crime may lose their right to vote.
Much like getting a library card, new voters must register, or fill out a special registration form. (I'm sending some registration forms—you can pass them around.) Look at the information that is collected. Registration prevents election fraud. By registering every voter, officials make sure that no person votes more than once during an election. On Election Day, each voter's name is checked off a list of registered voters in a particular area.
Activity: How shall we register voters for our election? Who should get to vote—just kids? Kids and parents? Do babies get to vote? If you come to co-op classes, can you vote? What about co-op members not in classes who want to vote? What will be our requirements?
Again, some of the information came from my book though I tweaked.
I was an inspector for Indiana's special election Tuesday and I would have loved to see the kids on Wednesday to share some of what happened but that'll have to wait until next week. I'll post when I hear how class went this week.