The Political is Personal

In advance of election day tomorrow, we had a voting activity today in homeroom. "I don't care about politics!" an eleven-year-old sneered, and I sighed and readied myself for argument. To be honest, his attitude is not uncommon and never has been over the many years I've been teaching. 

And it's hardly a surprise, either. In the last 50 years, voter turnout in the US in presidential election years has been below 60%, and a little under 67% of eligible voters was considered a record in the 2020 presidential election. Here in our little county, (inside the Beltway, mind you) the turnout in 2020 was 79%, a bit below the 82% in 2016. But in an off-year like our gubernatorial race always is? It's only somewhere between 40 and 49 percent of the electorate in Virginia who participate.

Civic engagement can be fostered by schools, but ideally it begins at home, because although there aren't many issues that directly affect middle school students, the same cannot be said for their parents. A little dinnertime discussion about the issues would go a long way in sparking the interest of kids in elections. 

Even so, the roadblock that I often find myself up against when trying to instill the notion that it is important for all of us to pay attention to the issues and the candidates as best we can was removed today. 

"Remember when COVID started and all the schools were closed from March to June?" I asked the student who didn't care about politics. He nodded and so did everyone else. "You know who made the decision to do that? The governor. The same person some people don't think is important enough to vote for." 

I saw by their expressions that I had personalized the election for them. 

"Who are you going to vote for?" someone asked.

"I can't say," I answered. "Go ahead and vote for the candidates you think would do a good job. "

"I hate this guy's commercials!" someone laughed pointing at a name on the mock ballot.

"Oh yeah," I nodded. "My sister went to high school with him."

The class was incredulous.

"Is she going to vote for him?" a student asked, wide-eyed.

"She doesn't live in Virginia," I told them, "but if she did? She would never vote for the guy."

They gasped. "She knows him and she wouldn't vote for him?" somebody shook his head. "He must be pretty bad."