Posted by Mrs. Curran, 3rd Grade –
If you open up almost any Internet page, turn on the TV or radio, or just leave the house, the election news is there. It’s almost impossible to avoid hearing about it. People love it, or they hate it. They avoid it on social media. Others just can’t help themselves and have to put their opinions out there. It is said to be one of the ugliest elections ever.
Why in the world would I then bring this into a classroom of 3rd graders and teach them about it? I majored in American History in college. I’ve always felt that kids should know about the history of our country and that includes our government. It’s not all pretty. It’s not even good at times, but it’s what our country was founded on. I’m passionate about that. The good, the bad and the ugly. That’s our history.
How would you think a 3rd grader would react to learning about something that some Americans refuse to even talk about? They embraced it. Hearing about the changes that our country has made, and the true look of shock on their faces when we studied the changes in voting rights-from African Americans, to women, to the change in voting age. Their questions were consistent-why? Why wouldn’t everyone be able to vote? Their hearts and innocence were honest. I taught them about the growth that our country has gone through. That’s our progress.
We moved on to the electoral college and the popular vote. We talked about how the demographics of our country affects people’s opinions. We talked about former presidents and what made them great. We talked about the jobs of our government officials and the responsibility they have in making laws. We even compared and contrasted Secretary Clinton and Mr. Trump. That’s respect.
We had to be respectful. We had to know about change. We had to know about history. We had to learn that when we don’t get what we want; someone else is getting exactly what they want. Someone has to win, and someone has to lose. They were allowed to talk about who they wanted to win and why. This was teaching free speech. We had a classroom election. This was teaching voting rights and process.
The morning after the election was quiet. I could tell they weren’t sure if they could or should talk about it. I knew that some of them woke up to a concerned household while others didn’t. We talked about it, and it was great. We studied the map of the outcome. They were engaged, sincere with their fears, excitement, disappointment, interest, and questions. They were eased to hear that it was going to be ok. That’s all they wanted to know. They don’t need to question that. They need to know it is ok, because we say it will be. That’s reassurance.
I never told them who I voted for, but I did tell them I voted. We talked about how their short 8 years of life have been good in their kid world, and that the next 4 years of their kid life would be ok too. In just 10 years, they too will earn the right to go to the polls and vote for whomever they want. Whether we are happy with the outcome of the election or not, we will get to vote again. That’s America.
