The day after Obama was first elected, one of my students walked into the classroom and told me she now had free health care. I was surprised and happy for her. How? Obama was elected and now healthcare is free and for everyone! Talk about a good starting point on how the government works and who makes laws!
We often start off with discussion of news items that students see either on FaceBook or on some social media outlet. We talk about the reliability of those items and whether or not they can be verified and therefore believed. But then we dig deeper. You can’t say you are a democrat if you don’t know what the party stands for. You can’t understand the role of the party unless we discuss how the government was set up and how it is supposed to function.
So, what is a Democrat? What makes a Republican? For that matter, what is a political party?
Many people and places discourage questions and discussion around sensitive issues like politics and religion. Not us! At Women In Charge, we encourage questions. No question is off limits, although we tell our students to be prepared for an answer – even if that answer is “Not going to answer that!”
We like discussions where we can be open, honest, and inquisitive. We are a safe place to discuss issues that are confusing. The only rules are that you must be civil and you must agree to disagree politely when the times calls for that.
Once that is all understood, we can look into how a presidential election works. It starts with the primary system and elections and moves on to the general election and the electoral college. Big discussion on that! And you can’t talk electoral college unless you understand how the Legislative branch is set up. It’s a bicameral system. What? Quick English lesson: the ‘bi’ prefix means what? Let’s list the words that mean ‘two’ that start with ‘bi’. Yes, that does take us down the path of talking about sexuality.
Back to the government and elections. Once our choices for president are known, what other offices do we vote for in this election? Now for research into each candidate. And let’s not forget or overlook all the issues that are on the ballot!
Election time during a tumultuous period in our nation and government. Yikes. Can we talk civilly when our politicians and leaders can not? We can. And we do.