Welcome
Who: Students
What: Election Day Interviews
Where: Your polling place
When: ELECTION DAY!
Why:
Democracy is a hands on, participatory activity only we teach it as a spectator sport where the ‘children’ are to watch from the sidelines. By the time the students are done with their high school education, they rarely have more than an academic experience to relate to with regard to elections, politics and voting. This is a mistake, an opportunity squandered.
This activity challenges students to attend their polling place on Election Day, conduct an interview and share that interview. Finally, students watch democracy with their own eyes, interacting with their own neighbors in conversation about the voting system and then reflecting on their own future as an active citizen engaged in the democratic process. I hazard a guess that there is nothing more memorable or meaningful for my students in the year long course. This is everything education can and should be: personal, engaged and meaningful.
