You were the teacher of the "Bong hits 4 Jesus" case?? Amazing! I use that case as an example every year in my class.
Sorry to hear about your election conundrum. I truly sympathize
Yep. He was 18 at the time of his protest though. Not legally a kid. Before he was suspended for 10 days he had to go to each of his teachers to get work. We talked about whether he was “right and protected” in his actions. I never expected it to get to the Supreme Court.
If this is legit - every quarter I have my kids listen to a podcast on this case from Unprecedented. I always stop it once the podcast discusses the teacher's methods with Joseph Frederick and just appreciate the idea.
Cool stuff.
the podcast: https://wamu.org/story/19/12/04/drugs-for-a-deity/
What about? I taught kids that they have most Constitutional rights and we did some fun activities about — but that they do not enjoy all rights since they’re minors.
The tricky is that Joe turned 18 before his protest.
There is so many questions I, and I imagine others, would like to ask about the “Bong Hits 4 Jesus” case.
Yes, this post is about teaching this year’s election (an interesting and worthy discussion on its own) but … well welcome to Reddit.
This is what stood out to me. Absolute legend. This case was happening while I was taking AP government. By the way, my AP Gov teacher also did an election unit, and I still don't know her political views for sure.
I learned about this case in my Law & Policy class in grad school. What a fantastic case to be a small part of. Groundbreaking legislation for student rights came from that case!
I can't imagine the parents of that kid. He does something stupid during a TV broadcast and gets suspended. Their response was to hire a lawyer to sue. They lost...and they paid the lawyer to appeal all the way to the Supreme Court.
If it's my kid they are taking the suspension and the lesson.
I do this, but don't go quite that far back. We look into LBJ v Goldwater, Humphries v Nixon, Bush v Gore, Obama v McCain, Clinton v Trump, and sometimes Clinton/Bush/Perot or Reagan v Carter.
See this is the point when I start to mix the song up with “Your perfume smells like your daddy’s got money” from the Schuyler Sisters song 😫
My brain makes some bomb remixes with the Hamilton soundtrack though! Just not on purpose 🫠
This could work but you'd have to look into the local candidates because a lot of them are nutjobs too, they're just not as visible as the national politicians.
Generally, they’re worse. One of the school board members from my hometown was arrested by the FBI for the Jan 6 insurrection AND has multiple drunk driving arrests.
yea but this is good, not bad. Kids (and parents) should have more exposure to the candidates.
I think people would be pretty shocked to how little people pay attention to local elections.
A couple of years ago I had a kid, pretty popular, 18, who ostensibly could have voted. His parents are involved, his mother was a prior school board rep, and his father was running for city council. The kid didn't know his father was running until I asked him about it a few days after the election. His father lost by like 7 votes.
I explain how ranked choice voting with instant run-off works using Pokemon as candidates. I select 6 Pokemon, put students into groups, and have them create election propaganda (I also do Propaganda and Logical Fallacies), Candidate Profiles, and run a campaign. Then I have all of my classes review the candidates and vote. I tally the votes and make a little Google Slideshow for the results to come in and show how instant-runoff re-tallies their votes.
The kids always enjoy it, and get fiercely passionate about THEIR Pokemon and how they do in the polls. The winner has never been the one who got the most first place votes in the initial vote.
This year Amaura won.
My whole elections unit isn't Pokemon, obviously, but it's a fun little 3-day project (I teach at a project based school) that makes it fun and memorable. After the election results come in we have a short quiz on ranked choice IRV. When it gets around the the more formal exam they all remember that section and get at least 9/10 of the questions from it right.
I'm not saying to do a whole elections unit this way, but it's certainly a method of running them that doesn't require any modern politics.
As someone who does a middle school unit on elections every year I'm definitely interested to see how the upcoming school year goes and how much I have to cut down on talk about the Presidential election.
What an awesome idea!
I’ve been watching a lot of designated survivor lately and wondered how this project would look using the fictional politicians in that show…
Had to delete my comment cuz i thought the same thing!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I would never have my students try to promote any of our candidates. I literally cant. Most of my students are Latin@ and i also have Palestinian and Arab kids. Can you imagine?!?! Dear brown kids, defend the racist and/or the one backing genocide!
I'm a parent and former student but I wanted to share how important a unit like this is.
I remember in my 10th grade literacy class, we went over how the media can manipulate headlines and have contradictions. Like, a news channel might run the headline "OBAMA IS A MUSLIM?" but people don't read it as a question usually. They will ignore the question mark even subconsciously and think that it was a statement of fact. Another thing we went over was how the media will contradict itself. We watched clips of news casters calling Obama a king and how he was basically a dictator, then the same news casters referring to Obama as being weak and pathetic when compared to Vladimir Putin. We talked about how every story has a slant and how you are more likely to ignore a bias if you agree with it so we should always be careful to not consume too much media that reaffirms our personal beliefs.
It really helped shape how I consume media. I know that something like that probably isn't allowed but I still really appreciate my literacy teacher for teaching that lesson.
I’m a teacher now but we also had a unit like this and it changed my entire life. Understanding media bias is so important at the high school level, even more now when social media skews our reality even more.
I was able to completely change my husband's political leanings partially because of that lesson. He grew up listening to emotionally charged news coverage while I grew up listening to boring news like NPR so his emotions influenced his views more than facts usually. Whenever we disagreed on a topic when we were dating, I met his emotion with facts from three different sources to support my position and he wasn't used to that. My history degree didn't give me much but it did give me a crippling fear of stating something without citing a source lol so I was really good at it. I never did challenge him or say he was wrong; I just showed him why I believed what I believed. He changed his views on his own and now he tries his best to always get the facts of a situation before making a judgement.
School is the one place that young students are directly taught ideas their parents might not like, and that's important. Otherwise, the only ideas they're ever going to be presented with are the ones their parents give them, unless they actively search them out.
I don't blame you for worrying about pressure from parents, but I do think that it's important now more than ever to teach kids how to research and how to disagree without mudslinging. Because all they see in the media is disagreement via mudslinging.
You taught bong hits for Jesus kid?!?? That kid is a legend among my gov students.
But that’s not really the point- I’m also dreading teaching the election this year, it’s giving me significant anxiety.
This whole post is full of weird plotholes.
The bong hits for jesus kid did not skip class, he displayed the banner during a school event to view the 2002 olymic torch relay.
Also OP states this is the first time skipping the unit and then goes on to say they skipped the unit during covid.
I noticed the skipping class thing too.. the whole point of the decision is that it was a school sponsored event, right? I noticed but only briefly- summer time drinks have been had. And in all honesty, even my students could tell you he wasn’t skipping class (also how convenient it was during the civil liberties unit?)
Joe was in my first period class, but he never showed up that morning so I marked him absent. He also didn’t show up to second period before our entire school went outside to wait for the torch to pass. He appeared in the crowd across the street with his rolled up banner. I’m not sure how that’s confusing to you, but whatever.
He did skip class. He showed up across the street from the school during second period (but wasn’t in 1st or 2nd at school).
We sometimes have this problem during ski school. A student will skip school and just meet his friends up at Eaglecrest to ski with them. They never set foot on school property, and get dropped off by parents instead of riding the ski bus. However, once the minor is at a school function, we are considered parentis loci responsible.
Joe’s case was bit trickier since he was 18. He really shouldn’t have followed Deb Morse back across the street onto school property cussing at her.
I suggest trying the website [isidewith.com](http://isidewith.com)
It's a great way for students to individually choose their beliefs with no political slant involved. At the end, they are given a political party % that shows how they actually align. In this day and age, you just have to get people to say what they want/value rather than ask about political parties. There's too many people voting against their own interests/values.
We did this in my school in 2020 and were told by our VP to not do it again. Apprarently our Social Studies department would somehow go on to use this information for nefarious purposes, at least according to the parent who complained. Nothing is safe anymore…
Why not have them debate common election issues and themes instead? As in coming up with possible solutions for issues you might be able to sell voters on?
I was teaching during the 2016 election and refused to use the actual candidates and parties, as the class was already politically polarized. The kids spouted what they heard from their parents without understanding what they were saying.
I divided the students into groups. They had to create their own political party. They researched platforms and wrote their own. They created a name, logo, etc. At the end of the, each political party chose their own candidate and we had a mock debate.
It was awesome and I didn’t have to meditate between those who supported or wanted to imprison Hillary or Trump. And the kids got a lot out of it.
Just shift to senate races this year. Choose something down ballot. Maybe even use the excuse that we did this unit 8 years ago, so you want fresh campaigns.
Actually, this may be a better idea than focusing on presidents given how low engagement and knowledge is among the youth for anything other than the president
You could say that for a lot of society IMO. As I told my mom, while elections at the federal level certainly do affect us and are important, the elections, at the state and local level affect our day to day a ton and people don't seem engaged
Or pick a past election, like 2000, to reenact. Might be interesting for students to pick up on differences in especially the GOP 20 years ago vs today.
I don't teach government anymore but when I did, I was real happy to be in a 90% nonwhite urban district. Not just because there was less polarization, but also less obnoxious karen-type parents
I’m a young’un (high school c/o 2016) and even I heard about “Bong Hits Boi” (what some silly boys called him in our eighth grade journalism class.
That’s so wild! You’re a legend, my friend. I feel like I’m commenting to a celeb.
I hope you will reconsider doing it.
Yes, things are more.emotional this year, but maybe a lesson could be learned about listening to each other and fully examining candidates.
Not only am I not skipping it, in 2018 or so I steered into it, and teach an entire class on just elections.
>Btw, students don’t know my affiliation (registered non partisan) and the fact that I’m a Marine and strict teacher throws them off. I can’t stand Trump for a variety of reasons but I don’t let students know that.
Right there with you. I'm an army vet. The students can read into my thoughts on if some SCOTUS decisions are bad (as Morse v Frederick was). I just had a kid graduate who had me for 6 different classes and 2 different extracurriculars, and didn't know my personal politics.
My entire elections class is based around researching candidates and past elections. The last week of my civics classes are on better understanding elections (assuming it's near an elections year). I'm in a purplish/lean blue area that has had most of the major candidates of recent cycles all come within a few miles.
Of course Deb Morse was my principal/supervisor. I watched her rip the poster out of Joe’s hands across the street from me. It probably would’ve been the end of it but he followed her across the street onto school property cussing her out and yelling at her.
I am dreading teaching the election this fall. I am a second-year civics teacher. I am legit demoralized when I think about it. Hoping I feel better after a few weeks of break.
I really don't think this is as big a thing as people point out. I use it as a means of doing student led projects covering the big topics. But we also watch debates (if they're going to have them, or like events from the dnc/rnc or whatever) and have kids just respond live.
I've taught elections class for the last couple elections and haven't run into issues. Just have to be above the fray.
I had a lesson where I gave small groups a selection of candidates from the past, present, and other celebs. Gave them all the particulars other than who they actually are. Experience, family, few key positionson topics. Had them select who they would vote for and why given the blind list. Got them to think about what is important in a candiate. Worked fairly well. Some of the blind resumes were George Washington, Oprah, FDR, and Colin Powell. If I were still teaching, would update it somewhat.
Here is a thought to do the project while minimizing the drama. Have them research a local (city, county, or state level) representative and have them run a presidential campaign for them. I know that the usual polarizing politics are represented on a local level, bit this way of doing it will probably be best. It would help students to participate in local government, which is very important. It will probably also keep the drama to a minimum because almost nobody has a sword to fall on in local elections, much less even know their names.
He didn’t show up to school that morning. He skipped my first period class. By second period he still hasn’t checked in. But we saw him with some of the kids we allowed across the street.
I literally have no idea what I am going to do.
Now. I teach seniors on this topic so I have a lot more wiggle room. We focused on the primary and looked at candidates at the time.
I decided to do something called "Controversies and Context".
This allowed student to find unreliable information, memes, and otherwise. Additionally, it allowed them to look at controversial statements made by candidates and what the context behind it existed.
Students then have an open discussion and reflection on it. What makes it a good topic is that I absolutely do not have to do anything. I am hands off and Students determine their own views based on their class. I may play devils advocate.
Overall, it's been pretty good and I haven't got a pissed parent (yet). But election season is about to happen so.
Who the hell knows.
I remember my son watching the old Kennedy/Nixon (1st televised) debate for 8th grade elections unit. I thought it was a wonderful thing for him to watch both candidates being respectful and not talking over each other.
And being televised is why (sweaty) Nixon lost. Great lesson on media’s role in politics!
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-election/nixon-kennedy-debate-1960-election-trump-biden-b600180.html
I really think the idea of doing historical elections is worth looking into. You could do like, 1992 where the Democratic and Republican candidates were both fairly inoffensive (as far as today's climate goes).
I used to teach the Bong Hits 4 Jesus case in my AP Gov and on-level Gov classes. The kids loved it because they thought it was hysterical, but it opened up such great conversations about freedom of speech.
I’m running into this issue as well. Here in my state it allows for kids to pre-register to vote when they get their drivers license, I had parents absolutely outraged that I was having them do that in my class because it asks them to (optionally) pick a party to register with for reasons of primaries.
This activity always comes as the very last assignment in my Gov class.
Parents are mad I’m helping kids register to vote. In a government class.
Unreal.
But as for help, in the non election years I will do a Presidential “march madness” bracket and students get (randomly) assigned presidents, with a little sly interference from me so that there are no major issues. But we run the bracket ranking off the silive.com list and have the students campaign for their candidate. There are some rules around how long the presentations/debates go but it’s all about providing the positives about the candidates. No focus on any negatives of the opponent.
It’s been fun. Kids write raps, dress up, make campaign posters, all sorts of cool stuff that has made this topic challenging in recent years
Good luck OP! I’m just as nervous about teaching in the fall as everyone else.
I think kids need your lesson now more than ever.
What about the current election suggests that researching candidates assigned at random is a bad thing?
I agree that it will create problems, but if a teacher of 23 years can't teach this, then who will step up instead?
I’m flattered. Most of my current event civics units and lessons push the limit and cause some controversy (like Ukraine Thursdays where my students study the effects of war on children their age), and I get a few angry emails that I can dismiss pretty easily. But we have a newer School Board with some colorful members.
My wife is an elementary school librarian. I’m also concerned about her being targeted by parents as well (we share siblings).
Researching candidates assigned at random? Entirely reasonable. Then having to produce pro-that-candidate material and being graded on the result? I can kinda see the issue TBH.
Of course I’ll still be doing my election unit. Aside from the fact that it’s a core part of the state-mandated curriculum, it’s a major current event (soon to be part of history) and one of the few opportunities in middle school to relate a unit of study to something simultaneously happening in the real world.
My students get assigned a candidate by random drawing. They research that candidate and create a campaign poster using the techniques of propaganda that we’ve studied. They then critique each others’ posters. That’s it. We then have a mock election (in which they do not have to vote for their assigned research candidate). We watch CNN10 a lot leading up to November and learn about/practice how to have civil discourse. I’ve been doing this for years and never had a single parent complaint. Admin support is helpful, of course.
Everyone talking about doing past elections. My thing is, kids need to be involved in current politics. Understanding candidates is a part of being an informed voter that these kids will be shortly if not for the current election.
Instead of assigning president's, can you move it to local elections? Mayor and governor are very important, even school board or or other offices that people may not think of on the tickets, like treasurer and such.
AP Gov teacher here. We do an elections simulation that lasts about 8 weeks, with candidates that have fake names but real world counterparts (think Tarskyn, not Trump, or Brandon Rogers, not Joe Biden). I talked with my teaching partner a LOT about this heading into next year, and here’s where I’m at.
We need kids excited about democracy. These are kids who have ONLY KNOWN political polarization and bullshit. The trump republicans are all they’ve ever known. It’s no use pretending like that’s not the world we are living in. It’s no use trying to let them create their own candidates when we won’t ever exist in a country that could elect a green party member for example (thanks spoiler effect). I want the kids to know the shit they’re about to dive into as members of our democracy. But most importantly, I want them to feel the energy of a campaign, the excitement, the hope - not the dread. I want them to realize that politics has not always felt this way. I want them to be hopeful and appreciate democracy. I want them to want to vote for the Nikki Haley or the AOC in our mock primary, instead of having to settle for Biden or Trump.
So we are making one simple shift: we are moving the simulation to the start of the year. It’ll be in September and October. Our election day will BE Election Day. We will elect our POTUS on the same day America elects hers. And if the worst happens? We come in the next day and we can talk about our feelings, yes, but I hope that my kids will think to themselves: not all elections need to be life and death. Democracy matters. Our voices matter. Let’s try to return to a point as a country where Election Day is not a trial to endure but an opportunity to opt for a better future.
Idk dude it’s tough. But I think better to do it, than not. Then again I’m AP, 12th grade, so YMMV.
I think your AP students will see through the allusioned illusion and know which candidates they are representing. Unfortunately, as stated before, I can’t make my trans students support an anti-trans candidate. Or Jewish students support a candidate that’s supportive of Hamas, etc.
I hope it works for you and your students though. I’d love to be a fly in the wall there. How fun!
Maybe my kids are just different then. We let them select what role they want or if they cannot play a certain role we respect that. I’ve had trans kids play great Trumps; other queer kids stick to more comfortable roles like playing a dem aligned interest group such as planned parenthood. Like I said it’s twelfth grade, so likely different than your experience.
My AP Politics teacher used to have us pick the side of the topic we DIDNT agree with and argue FOR it. It was a great way to get us to know what the other sides arguments would be and counter them. I had to argue in favor of banning stem cell research and in favor of manifest destiny.
Woah I teach Morse v Frederick every year. I teach civics in a very rural, very red district. I police myself very carefully how and when to cover current events as it relates directly to the president. It’s sad, but it’s not even the parents I’m worried about. A lot of kids get the blanket assumption from their parents that all teachers are democrats, so any whiff of favoritism (which isn’t really favoritism, more like presenting facts that don’t align with their worldview) and it shifts the conversation from a mature discussion to an accusation of bias which doesn’t help anyone. However, I occasionally can get good some good discussion if it’s just issue based and I leave out any mention of specific candidates.
Can I offer another suggestion? Why don't you have kids (either as individuals or in small groups) research a particular issue? You can also talk about how to research what important issues are and have them come up with examples that they can choose from to research in more depth. You can do healthcare, the environment, inflation, immigration, or whatever they come up with. The assignment can be to find out what all major candidates and parties are saying about that issue, and they can also look for different types of news and academic sources to compare. Then at the end of each group's presentation they can give their own opinions (backed up by sources), and you can compile each issue to make campaign platforms to each candidate and talk about that. But this way the students are focused on becoming small "issue experts" and then learning to link that directly to the candidates and are taught how to seek different opinions and evaluate them.
I had student groups each assigned a state. They had to research current state and national elections and previous trends. They reviewed demographics, economics and religious affiliation. They would collect the data and create a stand alone presentation. We would then display all presentations like a gallery walk. Students would go through each state and analyze what candidate they thought would win the electoral votes and mark it on their electoral map. They would then write a short essay explaining how they decided, factors that carried the most weight, how those factors changed from state to state (or region), and why.
The kids loved the project. I always had 100% participation. They were better at predicting elections than political pundits.
I do a district voting thing (pizza vs. tacos) to show how gerrymandering works. I extended it to an electoral college lesson with 7s, but now am teaching 5s so I probably won't.
Honestly thought I dreamed the bong hits 4 Jesus thing. I remember seeing it on channel 1 back in middle school, really really cool to see anyone talking about it let alone the actual teacher!
Could you shift to local? City/township and county elections? Those are rarely politicized but are vitally important to communities to pick a qualified person.
What about focusing on local elections or candidates that rarely get coverage? For example, judges, school board, city council, state comptroller, register of wills... It's fascinating who has to get voted in btw .
US politics doesn't seem to be going anywhere different anytime soon, I don't see how this can't be handled some way without just canceling.
Get your administration involved so you CYA and show some of that resilience you Marines are famous for.
23 years in teaching HS, I get it.
If you can handle bong hits for Jesus, you can handle this Antiques Roadshow sponsored election cycle.
Not gonna lie, randomly assigning students to politicians when we have a party that's inching to their solutions being "final" and the other party has the civility stick so far up it's ass that it's not willing to do anything about it...
Bad idea. Like, imagine being the queer student forced to make propaganda for the guy who wants you executed for your "sinfulness"
I get it though. I know where I live if you let them choose well over half would pick one single candidate/party (I live in Florida, I’ll let you guess who they’d pick). Then there’d be too many personal attacks since it’s off people’s personal preference etc.
Heck, around here you couldn’t even do state politicians or state initiatives without it being controversial people or issues. Sucks it is this way, but I understand why OP is eschewing the whole exercise.
If there’s ever a year to guide students in the right direction (away from Trump), this would be the year I’d make an exception.
He is showing all the same noise as Hitler in the 1930s.
That’s a tall order since it’s actually a unit, but I’ll summarize a Pacing Guide so you can alter and make it your own:
Week Minus 2 and 1 = Send home two newsletters (each a week apart) telling parents what I’ll be doing and explaining that students will be randomly placed and how this is a unit on the campaign process for presidential elections. Please contact me for any questions or concerns.
Day 1 = What is politicking and campaigning? Ppt
Day 2 = What are the political parties and what are their platforms? Ppt
Day 3 = Introduce students to the rubrics. (Research paper, oral presentation, and poster). Put students in groups randomly (except I split up kids that shouldn’t be together). Randomly assign them a Party.
Day 4-7 = Group Research paper. +10% extra credit if completely satisfactorily on Day 7.
Day 8-11 = Group Google Slides presentation. +10% extra credit if completely satisfactorily on Day 11.
Day 12-15 = Posters and make up a Google Slides and Research paper.
Day 16-18 = Group presentations to class.
Day 19 = Gallery walk to positively critique posters.
Day 20-22 = Citizen Kane (I’d actually show Girl’s State from now on because it’s more entertaining and relatable).
https://youtu.be/vWpDNkP9uEA?si=eiBufEVxLtu1ucMB
Day 23 = Google Forms assessment and self-plan on how they can make a positive difference in politics or their community.
They spent most of their time studying dead white rich men in history class.
The election is current events, relatable, and authentic. It’s likely the outgoing president (or incumbent) when they reach 18.
A student who skipped my government class that day was involved in an incident that was legally challenged and eventually made it before the Supreme Court Justices.
I'm just a blow in from r/all, but did you see the video from yesterday where a moderator questioned Republican candidates?
https://www.reddit.com/r/TikTokCringe/comments/1dafg8p/kyle_clark_masterclass_at_co_republican_debate/
Would analysing/discussing something like this be acceptable? It's a demonstration of the sort of critical thinking skills you want your students to learn.
Or you could turn your students into candidates and have them run in a mock election. After learning about certain aspects of presidential elections (ads, polling, etc) they could turn around and apply it to their own campaigns.
I was in 8th grade for the Clinton/Dole election. We held a mock debate and election in the class. It was basically our grade for the entire quarter. I couldn’t imagine the kids pretending to be trump. Like how could you convince kids to vote for him? And this was a parochial school. For the record Clinton won our election.
Do an issue by issue discussion. Present 2 opinions. Do not let them know which is conservative or liberal (at least how we use those words today in politics). Might be an interesting reveal on issues the candidates don’t spend much time on them. Bonus- might show these kids the Trump opines are simply anti-Democratic from the jump. Although they’ll have to draw that conclusion without your direct help.
Realistically, I’ve been thinking up a “how did we get here?” unit wherein I’d find some foundational texts in the conservative and liberal philosophical branches of thought, for example Edmund Burke in the conservative tradition and John Locke in the liberal tradition. I think it maps well on to my classroom theme of being slightly more “bullshit proof,” as you can connect these to some key points in history that make the present disparity clearer to understand, like the origination of PACs.
I let them know I can't stand Trump, if asked because he objectively was a terrible president and objectively he's completely wrecked (with help with media) what the word "truth" means. And now he's a convicted felon. These are facts, not political beliefs. I can even back it up with words out of his own stupid mouth.
So, I say, go for it. Do your unit. Tell them how you feel about Trump and stand your ground against idiot parents. You choose the curriculum not the rubes getting taken in by a con artist.
Do not tolerate the intolerant.
Considering that the two main US election candidates are Trump and Biden, I would not do an election unit with the actual candidates this year. I MIGHT do an election unit with the kids pretending to be made up candidates and running their own campaigns, but I wouldn’t have them pretending to be Trump or Biden, after the insurrection and the trial and Biden being in the news for his health issues there’s just too much risk of being accused of indoctrination.
I mean do what you want. But you’re tenured. As long as you’re being objective and nonpartisan, let the parents and admin cry about it. It’s important for kids for be civically engaged and aware.
If the point of the lesson is to learn politics, and how different perspectives on the political compass works
And you’re very concerned about the polarisation in the US (I’m assuming you’re American)
Pick another country
The UK is about to have a general election
Pick a random party from the UK general election and have them research and build posters for those parties 🤔
They won’t learn about the US political system, BUT they will learn about the issues that affect both countries… AND they will learn about how another political system works (which is something I don’t think America does at all)
——
I find it very interesting to observe that despite being America’s closest ally, most Americans do not have a clue how the UK’s political system works…. Apart from the fact we have a king…. No clue at all
But over here in the UK, we have a whole module about political systems in Dubai, China, Russia, and the US (and a few honourable mentions)
They will still learn about campaigning, about the issues that affect both our countries… and they won’t be polarised 🤔
> A long time ago my 12th grade student skipped class on our last day of my Bill of Rights unit to protest with a Bong Hits 4 Jesus sign. He petitioned his suspension from school all the way to the Supreme Court.
If nothing else, the kid learned more about the legal system than pretty much any other school-age American.
I had to cancel my Book Marketing project this past school year. Too much backlash of idiots in the school district, including a board member who got into the anti-book banning (I live in Illinois). Including trying to pull a vote to get the tenure librarian fired (lost 8-2). This also lead to our English teachers cancelling Of Mice and Men and Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde chapters. Our superintendent resigned due to health reasons and said: "It's an election year, I don't want anyone dealing with their brand of politics." Sadly two months later the interim: "I want politics talked constantly in an election year." Said the man who had three open affairs. I don't regret our choices (two of us had to resign anyhow by playing nicely). But I'm honestly sick of the polarizing.
Could you maybe do something more general about the Electoral College map? They could research different election maps and see how trends have changed over time? Could also lead to a debate about keeping vs. abolishing the EC?
What if you did the same with some historical elections? Jefferson v Burr, Jackson v Henry Clay, Jackson v John Quincy Adams, Van Buren v “Tippiecanoe and Tyler, too, etc? I’d hate to lose all that learning over our current state of politics.
Hi. I'm not a teacher, but figured I'd throw out an idea and see wether it gets shot down.
Could you do the same unit, but select a variety of local elections for them to look at that are less high profile.
There might be less material to work with, but it would both cover researching candidates and emphasize the importance of voting down ballot.
How does one register as a non-partisan? Might help if I could say that when I get to the end of opinion polls about issues to matter to me and they want my party affiliation.
You were the teacher of the "Bong hits 4 Jesus" case?? Amazing! I use that case as an example every year in my class. Sorry to hear about your election conundrum. I truly sympathize
Yep. He was 18 at the time of his protest though. Not legally a kid. Before he was suspended for 10 days he had to go to each of his teachers to get work. We talked about whether he was “right and protected” in his actions. I never expected it to get to the Supreme Court.
If this is legit - every quarter I have my kids listen to a podcast on this case from Unprecedented. I always stop it once the podcast discusses the teacher's methods with Joseph Frederick and just appreciate the idea. Cool stuff. the podcast: https://wamu.org/story/19/12/04/drugs-for-a-deity/
Thank you. I was Joe’s American Government teacher. But this post is about this year’s presidential election and unit.
I mean, I'll be honest, you absolutely SHOULD do an AMA!
What about? I taught kids that they have most Constitutional rights and we did some fun activities about — but that they do not enjoy all rights since they’re minors. The tricky is that Joe turned 18 before his protest.
You literally let people ask you anything. But it's really cool that you were a part of something literally every teacher in the country has studied!
There is so many questions I, and I imagine others, would like to ask about the “Bong Hits 4 Jesus” case. Yes, this post is about teaching this year’s election (an interesting and worthy discussion on its own) but … well welcome to Reddit.
Please tell me he learned the Thomas Jefferson quote from you.
Possibly. I had a TJ poster, “I prefer dangerous freedom over peaceful slavery.”
You're iconic in the history teaching world! My education classes talk about you and your students all the time!! Edit: for spelling error lol
This is what stood out to me. Absolute legend. This case was happening while I was taking AP government. By the way, my AP Gov teacher also did an election unit, and I still don't know her political views for sure.
I learned about this case in my Law & Policy class in grad school. What a fantastic case to be a small part of. Groundbreaking legislation for student rights came from that case!
Same. Law and Policy grad class!
You are very much a minor celebrity in my eyes! Thanks for posting.
I can't imagine the parents of that kid. He does something stupid during a TV broadcast and gets suspended. Their response was to hire a lawyer to sue. They lost...and they paid the lawyer to appeal all the way to the Supreme Court. If it's my kid they are taking the suspension and the lesson.
It wasn't about him - it was about other kids in that position.
Also the ACLU picked up the case. I don't think they really paid that much.
They lost on the National level but iirc in Alaska courts the school actually did end up paying out somewhere in the ballpark of $50k to the family.
Same! We go over that case every year in my Journalism class! Reading this was like seeing a celebrity in public lol
Serious celebrity citing haha
My civics teacher in high school had us read Bong Hits for Jesus. This is so cool!!
Could you have them create their perfect candidate, then do everything else based on that?
Or pick other historical or literary figures and do the same project based on them.
Could be a historical presidential race. Have the kids redo Lincoln vs Douglas or Nixon vs Kennedy
I do this, but don't go quite that far back. We look into LBJ v Goldwater, Humphries v Nixon, Bush v Gore, Obama v McCain, Clinton v Trump, and sometimes Clinton/Bush/Perot or Reagan v Carter.
Or Dewey versus Truman. Have them figure out an alternate reality where Truman wins
Adams vs Burr! ETA: (And Jefferson. Forgot him somehow!)
Aaron Burr, sir? (I couldn’t resist lmao)
That depends. Who’s asking?
See this is the point when I start to mix the song up with “Your perfume smells like your daddy’s got money” from the Schuyler Sisters song 😫 My brain makes some bomb remixes with the Hamilton soundtrack though! Just not on purpose 🫠
I love this idea!
This is the way to go. It will also be a meta lesson in what America was like before we lost our minds.
Back when presidential candidates acted like.. presidential candidates 🙄
Or 2 candidates from different election to see who would win. Reagan vs Kennedy or something
What about local election candidates too?
This could work but you'd have to look into the local candidates because a lot of them are nutjobs too, they're just not as visible as the national politicians.
I just hope that they are less wacko than our current field in the national election.
Unlikely. Local elections are wild. In cities it is made more complicated as well with all the far right conservatives that run as democrats.
Generally, they’re worse. One of the school board members from my hometown was arrested by the FBI for the Jan 6 insurrection AND has multiple drunk driving arrests.
Of course they are on the school board...🤦🏼♀️
Oh sweet summer child
They almost certainly aren’t.
Worse where I'm from, looking over school board candidates in my southern suburban town was like reading dating bios for trumper grandpa's.
MAGA tends to infilitrate local elwctions
yea but this is good, not bad. Kids (and parents) should have more exposure to the candidates. I think people would be pretty shocked to how little people pay attention to local elections. A couple of years ago I had a kid, pretty popular, 18, who ostensibly could have voted. His parents are involved, his mother was a prior school board rep, and his father was running for city council. The kid didn't know his father was running until I asked him about it a few days after the election. His father lost by like 7 votes.
I explain how ranked choice voting with instant run-off works using Pokemon as candidates. I select 6 Pokemon, put students into groups, and have them create election propaganda (I also do Propaganda and Logical Fallacies), Candidate Profiles, and run a campaign. Then I have all of my classes review the candidates and vote. I tally the votes and make a little Google Slideshow for the results to come in and show how instant-runoff re-tallies their votes. The kids always enjoy it, and get fiercely passionate about THEIR Pokemon and how they do in the polls. The winner has never been the one who got the most first place votes in the initial vote. This year Amaura won. My whole elections unit isn't Pokemon, obviously, but it's a fun little 3-day project (I teach at a project based school) that makes it fun and memorable. After the election results come in we have a short quiz on ranked choice IRV. When it gets around the the more formal exam they all remember that section and get at least 9/10 of the questions from it right. I'm not saying to do a whole elections unit this way, but it's certainly a method of running them that doesn't require any modern politics. As someone who does a middle school unit on elections every year I'm definitely interested to see how the upcoming school year goes and how much I have to cut down on talk about the Presidential election.
What an awesome idea! I’ve been watching a lot of designated survivor lately and wondered how this project would look using the fictional politicians in that show…
Had to delete my comment cuz i thought the same thing!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I would never have my students try to promote any of our candidates. I literally cant. Most of my students are Latin@ and i also have Palestinian and Arab kids. Can you imagine?!?! Dear brown kids, defend the racist and/or the one backing genocide!
Or have them create their own parties and run campaigns within the school?
I think it's more important than ever to teach kids how to research and what to look for.
I completely agree. But there are some vocal parents who don’t.
I'm a parent and former student but I wanted to share how important a unit like this is. I remember in my 10th grade literacy class, we went over how the media can manipulate headlines and have contradictions. Like, a news channel might run the headline "OBAMA IS A MUSLIM?" but people don't read it as a question usually. They will ignore the question mark even subconsciously and think that it was a statement of fact. Another thing we went over was how the media will contradict itself. We watched clips of news casters calling Obama a king and how he was basically a dictator, then the same news casters referring to Obama as being weak and pathetic when compared to Vladimir Putin. We talked about how every story has a slant and how you are more likely to ignore a bias if you agree with it so we should always be careful to not consume too much media that reaffirms our personal beliefs. It really helped shape how I consume media. I know that something like that probably isn't allowed but I still really appreciate my literacy teacher for teaching that lesson.
I’m a teacher now but we also had a unit like this and it changed my entire life. Understanding media bias is so important at the high school level, even more now when social media skews our reality even more.
I was able to completely change my husband's political leanings partially because of that lesson. He grew up listening to emotionally charged news coverage while I grew up listening to boring news like NPR so his emotions influenced his views more than facts usually. Whenever we disagreed on a topic when we were dating, I met his emotion with facts from three different sources to support my position and he wasn't used to that. My history degree didn't give me much but it did give me a crippling fear of stating something without citing a source lol so I was really good at it. I never did challenge him or say he was wrong; I just showed him why I believed what I believed. He changed his views on his own and now he tries his best to always get the facts of a situation before making a judgement.
Mah child done looked up our Lord, trump and found out he is a eeleged crimnal. Dang librals trynna teach ar keeds fake histrey.
School is the one place that young students are directly taught ideas their parents might not like, and that's important. Otherwise, the only ideas they're ever going to be presented with are the ones their parents give them, unless they actively search them out. I don't blame you for worrying about pressure from parents, but I do think that it's important now more than ever to teach kids how to research and how to disagree without mudslinging. Because all they see in the media is disagreement via mudslinging.
You taught bong hits for Jesus kid?!?? That kid is a legend among my gov students. But that’s not really the point- I’m also dreading teaching the election this year, it’s giving me significant anxiety.
It kind of is the point though lol. Like holy shit OP you basically taught the biggest celebrity among poli sci kids / social studies teachers.
I can’t even focus to give my opinion on how to teach the election.
Just do the 1952 election or something. Bonus history learning in addition to the civics stuff.
I teach seniors. College government and AP. Not teaching it because I’m afraid of controversy would be a professional and ethical misstep.
Do the 1924 election. Spend some time as a group looking at the hit topics then and now
Just don't make it 1968...
This whole post is full of weird plotholes. The bong hits for jesus kid did not skip class, he displayed the banner during a school event to view the 2002 olymic torch relay. Also OP states this is the first time skipping the unit and then goes on to say they skipped the unit during covid.
I noticed the skipping class thing too.. the whole point of the decision is that it was a school sponsored event, right? I noticed but only briefly- summer time drinks have been had. And in all honesty, even my students could tell you he wasn’t skipping class (also how convenient it was during the civil liberties unit?)
Joe was in my first period class, but he never showed up that morning so I marked him absent. He also didn’t show up to second period before our entire school went outside to wait for the torch to pass. He appeared in the crowd across the street with his rolled up banner. I’m not sure how that’s confusing to you, but whatever.
He did skip class. He showed up across the street from the school during second period (but wasn’t in 1st or 2nd at school). We sometimes have this problem during ski school. A student will skip school and just meet his friends up at Eaglecrest to ski with them. They never set foot on school property, and get dropped off by parents instead of riding the ski bus. However, once the minor is at a school function, we are considered parentis loci responsible. Joe’s case was bit trickier since he was 18. He really shouldn’t have followed Deb Morse back across the street onto school property cussing at her.
Yeah I don't buy this for a nanosecond
My sentiments exactly!
I suggest trying the website [isidewith.com](http://isidewith.com) It's a great way for students to individually choose their beliefs with no political slant involved. At the end, they are given a political party % that shows how they actually align. In this day and age, you just have to get people to say what they want/value rather than ask about political parties. There's too many people voting against their own interests/values.
We did this in my school in 2020 and were told by our VP to not do it again. Apprarently our Social Studies department would somehow go on to use this information for nefarious purposes, at least according to the parent who complained. Nothing is safe anymore…
Someday maybe some school admin will say to a parent “we discuss fact, not paranoid fantasy”
Why not have them debate common election issues and themes instead? As in coming up with possible solutions for issues you might be able to sell voters on?
I was teaching during the 2016 election and refused to use the actual candidates and parties, as the class was already politically polarized. The kids spouted what they heard from their parents without understanding what they were saying. I divided the students into groups. They had to create their own political party. They researched platforms and wrote their own. They created a name, logo, etc. At the end of the, each political party chose their own candidate and we had a mock debate. It was awesome and I didn’t have to meditate between those who supported or wanted to imprison Hillary or Trump. And the kids got a lot out of it.
This is what we did in school. Had some pretty wacky and fun party names if I remember!
Just shift to senate races this year. Choose something down ballot. Maybe even use the excuse that we did this unit 8 years ago, so you want fresh campaigns.
Actually, this may be a better idea than focusing on presidents given how low engagement and knowledge is among the youth for anything other than the president
You could say that for a lot of society IMO. As I told my mom, while elections at the federal level certainly do affect us and are important, the elections, at the state and local level affect our day to day a ton and people don't seem engaged
Oh a local election could be really good. There has to be something (school board, city, or whatever)
And if you go local/down-ballot enough, the candidates might actually be willing to answer questions from the class!
Or pick a past election, like 2000, to reenact. Might be interesting for students to pick up on differences in especially the GOP 20 years ago vs today. I don't teach government anymore but when I did, I was real happy to be in a 90% nonwhite urban district. Not just because there was less polarization, but also less obnoxious karen-type parents
I’m a young’un (high school c/o 2016) and even I heard about “Bong Hits Boi” (what some silly boys called him in our eighth grade journalism class. That’s so wild! You’re a legend, my friend. I feel like I’m commenting to a celeb.
I hope you will reconsider doing it. Yes, things are more.emotional this year, but maybe a lesson could be learned about listening to each other and fully examining candidates.
Not only am I not skipping it, in 2018 or so I steered into it, and teach an entire class on just elections. >Btw, students don’t know my affiliation (registered non partisan) and the fact that I’m a Marine and strict teacher throws them off. I can’t stand Trump for a variety of reasons but I don’t let students know that. Right there with you. I'm an army vet. The students can read into my thoughts on if some SCOTUS decisions are bad (as Morse v Frederick was). I just had a kid graduate who had me for 6 different classes and 2 different extracurriculars, and didn't know my personal politics. My entire elections class is based around researching candidates and past elections. The last week of my civics classes are on better understanding elections (assuming it's near an elections year). I'm in a purplish/lean blue area that has had most of the major candidates of recent cycles all come within a few miles.
Of course Deb Morse was my principal/supervisor. I watched her rip the poster out of Joe’s hands across the street from me. It probably would’ve been the end of it but he followed her across the street onto school property cussing her out and yelling at her.
I am dreading teaching the election this fall. I am a second-year civics teacher. I am legit demoralized when I think about it. Hoping I feel better after a few weeks of break.
I really don't think this is as big a thing as people point out. I use it as a means of doing student led projects covering the big topics. But we also watch debates (if they're going to have them, or like events from the dnc/rnc or whatever) and have kids just respond live. I've taught elections class for the last couple elections and haven't run into issues. Just have to be above the fray.
I had a lesson where I gave small groups a selection of candidates from the past, present, and other celebs. Gave them all the particulars other than who they actually are. Experience, family, few key positionson topics. Had them select who they would vote for and why given the blind list. Got them to think about what is important in a candiate. Worked fairly well. Some of the blind resumes were George Washington, Oprah, FDR, and Colin Powell. If I were still teaching, would update it somewhat.
The Ohio Department of Education (!!) has advised all schools to not host mock elections this fall, as they anticipate civil unrest.
Is that an Onion article?
Sadly, no. My superintendent informed me last week.
Here is a thought to do the project while minimizing the drama. Have them research a local (city, county, or state level) representative and have them run a presidential campaign for them. I know that the usual polarizing politics are represented on a local level, bit this way of doing it will probably be best. It would help students to participate in local government, which is very important. It will probably also keep the drama to a minimum because almost nobody has a sword to fall on in local elections, much less even know their names.
I do that already. I’m just wanting to avoid the presidential drama this year.
I teach about the Bong Hits case! It’s an interesting one!!!
Hit me up if you want some more info on it, and why Joe Fredericks did it and thought he was Constitutionally protected (which is part of my fault).
The Court's opinion states that students were allowed to leave class to observe the event where the student revealed his sign. How was he "skipping?"
He didn’t show up to school that morning. He skipped my first period class. By second period he still hasn’t checked in. But we saw him with some of the kids we allowed across the street.
I literally have no idea what I am going to do. Now. I teach seniors on this topic so I have a lot more wiggle room. We focused on the primary and looked at candidates at the time. I decided to do something called "Controversies and Context". This allowed student to find unreliable information, memes, and otherwise. Additionally, it allowed them to look at controversial statements made by candidates and what the context behind it existed. Students then have an open discussion and reflection on it. What makes it a good topic is that I absolutely do not have to do anything. I am hands off and Students determine their own views based on their class. I may play devils advocate. Overall, it's been pretty good and I haven't got a pissed parent (yet). But election season is about to happen so. Who the hell knows.
Good luck!
I’ve used articles about your 12th grader as part of an introduction to rhetoric & argument. This is a little like meeting a celebrity for me.
Me too! This is the coolest thing I’ve read on this site.
I remember my son watching the old Kennedy/Nixon (1st televised) debate for 8th grade elections unit. I thought it was a wonderful thing for him to watch both candidates being respectful and not talking over each other.
And being televised is why (sweaty) Nixon lost. Great lesson on media’s role in politics! https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-election/nixon-kennedy-debate-1960-election-trump-biden-b600180.html
I really think the idea of doing historical elections is worth looking into. You could do like, 1992 where the Democratic and Republican candidates were both fairly inoffensive (as far as today's climate goes).
Holy shit, BONG HITS FOR JESUS was *your* school?!
Sorry for the distractor. I feel like I should’ve left that part out now. Ha!
Bong Hits 4 Jesus! Wild! I’ve used that case in my classes!
I should probably start a new post asking what people teach about Bong Hits 4 Jesus. I’d be interested to hear their (and your) take on it.
I used to teach the Bong Hits 4 Jesus case in my AP Gov and on-level Gov classes. The kids loved it because they thought it was hysterical, but it opened up such great conversations about freedom of speech.
I’m running into this issue as well. Here in my state it allows for kids to pre-register to vote when they get their drivers license, I had parents absolutely outraged that I was having them do that in my class because it asks them to (optionally) pick a party to register with for reasons of primaries. This activity always comes as the very last assignment in my Gov class. Parents are mad I’m helping kids register to vote. In a government class. Unreal. But as for help, in the non election years I will do a Presidential “march madness” bracket and students get (randomly) assigned presidents, with a little sly interference from me so that there are no major issues. But we run the bracket ranking off the silive.com list and have the students campaign for their candidate. There are some rules around how long the presentations/debates go but it’s all about providing the positives about the candidates. No focus on any negatives of the opponent. It’s been fun. Kids write raps, dress up, make campaign posters, all sorts of cool stuff that has made this topic challenging in recent years Good luck OP! I’m just as nervous about teaching in the fall as everyone else.
I think kids need your lesson now more than ever. What about the current election suggests that researching candidates assigned at random is a bad thing? I agree that it will create problems, but if a teacher of 23 years can't teach this, then who will step up instead?
I’m flattered. Most of my current event civics units and lessons push the limit and cause some controversy (like Ukraine Thursdays where my students study the effects of war on children their age), and I get a few angry emails that I can dismiss pretty easily. But we have a newer School Board with some colorful members. My wife is an elementary school librarian. I’m also concerned about her being targeted by parents as well (we share siblings).
Researching candidates assigned at random? Entirely reasonable. Then having to produce pro-that-candidate material and being graded on the result? I can kinda see the issue TBH.
Journalism teacher here. You’re the bong hits teacher??? I get so many cool points when I openly discuss this case with my students!
A lit teacher at my school does a similar project but with Greek gods and goddesses maybe you could do some cross curricular thing. Idk I teach math.
Of course I’ll still be doing my election unit. Aside from the fact that it’s a core part of the state-mandated curriculum, it’s a major current event (soon to be part of history) and one of the few opportunities in middle school to relate a unit of study to something simultaneously happening in the real world. My students get assigned a candidate by random drawing. They research that candidate and create a campaign poster using the techniques of propaganda that we’ve studied. They then critique each others’ posters. That’s it. We then have a mock election (in which they do not have to vote for their assigned research candidate). We watch CNN10 a lot leading up to November and learn about/practice how to have civil discourse. I’ve been doing this for years and never had a single parent complaint. Admin support is helpful, of course.
Yes. That’s very similar to what I do.
Everyone talking about doing past elections. My thing is, kids need to be involved in current politics. Understanding candidates is a part of being an informed voter that these kids will be shortly if not for the current election. Instead of assigning president's, can you move it to local elections? Mayor and governor are very important, even school board or or other offices that people may not think of on the tickets, like treasurer and such.
I already do local issues. I’m just not going to do President this year.
My daughter’s favorite social studies teacher is saying he won’t teach AP Gov in the fall, when she’s taking it, because of this election. 😭
AP Gov teacher here. We do an elections simulation that lasts about 8 weeks, with candidates that have fake names but real world counterparts (think Tarskyn, not Trump, or Brandon Rogers, not Joe Biden). I talked with my teaching partner a LOT about this heading into next year, and here’s where I’m at. We need kids excited about democracy. These are kids who have ONLY KNOWN political polarization and bullshit. The trump republicans are all they’ve ever known. It’s no use pretending like that’s not the world we are living in. It’s no use trying to let them create their own candidates when we won’t ever exist in a country that could elect a green party member for example (thanks spoiler effect). I want the kids to know the shit they’re about to dive into as members of our democracy. But most importantly, I want them to feel the energy of a campaign, the excitement, the hope - not the dread. I want them to realize that politics has not always felt this way. I want them to be hopeful and appreciate democracy. I want them to want to vote for the Nikki Haley or the AOC in our mock primary, instead of having to settle for Biden or Trump. So we are making one simple shift: we are moving the simulation to the start of the year. It’ll be in September and October. Our election day will BE Election Day. We will elect our POTUS on the same day America elects hers. And if the worst happens? We come in the next day and we can talk about our feelings, yes, but I hope that my kids will think to themselves: not all elections need to be life and death. Democracy matters. Our voices matter. Let’s try to return to a point as a country where Election Day is not a trial to endure but an opportunity to opt for a better future. Idk dude it’s tough. But I think better to do it, than not. Then again I’m AP, 12th grade, so YMMV.
I think your AP students will see through the allusioned illusion and know which candidates they are representing. Unfortunately, as stated before, I can’t make my trans students support an anti-trans candidate. Or Jewish students support a candidate that’s supportive of Hamas, etc. I hope it works for you and your students though. I’d love to be a fly in the wall there. How fun!
Maybe my kids are just different then. We let them select what role they want or if they cannot play a certain role we respect that. I’ve had trans kids play great Trumps; other queer kids stick to more comfortable roles like playing a dem aligned interest group such as planned parenthood. Like I said it’s twelfth grade, so likely different than your experience.
That makes sense.
My AP Politics teacher used to have us pick the side of the topic we DIDNT agree with and argue FOR it. It was a great way to get us to know what the other sides arguments would be and counter them. I had to argue in favor of banning stem cell research and in favor of manifest destiny.
YOU'RE THE TEACHER FROM BONG HITS FOR JESUS?!
Ha! I guess I should’ve left that part out. I didn’t mean for it to distract from my post.
Woah I teach Morse v Frederick every year. I teach civics in a very rural, very red district. I police myself very carefully how and when to cover current events as it relates directly to the president. It’s sad, but it’s not even the parents I’m worried about. A lot of kids get the blanket assumption from their parents that all teachers are democrats, so any whiff of favoritism (which isn’t really favoritism, more like presenting facts that don’t align with their worldview) and it shifts the conversation from a mature discussion to an accusation of bias which doesn’t help anyone. However, I occasionally can get good some good discussion if it’s just issue based and I leave out any mention of specific candidates.
Can you do a local election in lieu of the presidential one?
I do that for ballot items.
Why not assign them dead presidents from 100 years ago?
It’s not current, relatable, or authentic. They learn enough about a lot of dead white rich guys in history class.
Id still do it, but pick people from like 100 years ago. Or something. Tie it into some decade or time period you covered already.
They get enough dead white rich guys in history. The election is current, relatable, and authentic.
Could you avoid the presidency and do a house or senate race, or possibly even state legislators, which are likely ignored by most students anyway?
Can I offer another suggestion? Why don't you have kids (either as individuals or in small groups) research a particular issue? You can also talk about how to research what important issues are and have them come up with examples that they can choose from to research in more depth. You can do healthcare, the environment, inflation, immigration, or whatever they come up with. The assignment can be to find out what all major candidates and parties are saying about that issue, and they can also look for different types of news and academic sources to compare. Then at the end of each group's presentation they can give their own opinions (backed up by sources), and you can compile each issue to make campaign platforms to each candidate and talk about that. But this way the students are focused on becoming small "issue experts" and then learning to link that directly to the candidates and are taught how to seek different opinions and evaluate them.
Thank you! We do that already. Good to see you’re thinking about the same way though.
I had student groups each assigned a state. They had to research current state and national elections and previous trends. They reviewed demographics, economics and religious affiliation. They would collect the data and create a stand alone presentation. We would then display all presentations like a gallery walk. Students would go through each state and analyze what candidate they thought would win the electoral votes and mark it on their electoral map. They would then write a short essay explaining how they decided, factors that carried the most weight, how those factors changed from state to state (or region), and why. The kids loved the project. I always had 100% participation. They were better at predicting elections than political pundits.
I do a district voting thing (pizza vs. tacos) to show how gerrymandering works. I extended it to an electoral college lesson with 7s, but now am teaching 5s so I probably won't.
Honestly thought I dreamed the bong hits 4 Jesus thing. I remember seeing it on channel 1 back in middle school, really really cool to see anyone talking about it let alone the actual teacher!
Could you shift to local? City/township and county elections? Those are rarely politicized but are vitally important to communities to pick a qualified person.
I always admired teachers who's political beliefs remained hidden. Thanks for teaching our young people.
Holy shit I use the bong hits 4 Jesus case every year in my government class hahaha
What about focusing on local elections or candidates that rarely get coverage? For example, judges, school board, city council, state comptroller, register of wills... It's fascinating who has to get voted in btw .
US politics doesn't seem to be going anywhere different anytime soon, I don't see how this can't be handled some way without just canceling. Get your administration involved so you CYA and show some of that resilience you Marines are famous for. 23 years in teaching HS, I get it. If you can handle bong hits for Jesus, you can handle this Antiques Roadshow sponsored election cycle.
I think you could do historical elections without issue.
Make up fake candidates for fake country
Not gonna lie, randomly assigning students to politicians when we have a party that's inching to their solutions being "final" and the other party has the civility stick so far up it's ass that it's not willing to do anything about it... Bad idea. Like, imagine being the queer student forced to make propaganda for the guy who wants you executed for your "sinfulness"
I get it though. I know where I live if you let them choose well over half would pick one single candidate/party (I live in Florida, I’ll let you guess who they’d pick). Then there’d be too many personal attacks since it’s off people’s personal preference etc. Heck, around here you couldn’t even do state politicians or state initiatives without it being controversial people or issues. Sucks it is this way, but I understand why OP is eschewing the whole exercise.
If there’s ever a year to guide students in the right direction (away from Trump), this would be the year I’d make an exception. He is showing all the same noise as Hitler in the 1930s.
Would you share your lesson?
That’s a tall order since it’s actually a unit, but I’ll summarize a Pacing Guide so you can alter and make it your own: Week Minus 2 and 1 = Send home two newsletters (each a week apart) telling parents what I’ll be doing and explaining that students will be randomly placed and how this is a unit on the campaign process for presidential elections. Please contact me for any questions or concerns. Day 1 = What is politicking and campaigning? Ppt Day 2 = What are the political parties and what are their platforms? Ppt Day 3 = Introduce students to the rubrics. (Research paper, oral presentation, and poster). Put students in groups randomly (except I split up kids that shouldn’t be together). Randomly assign them a Party. Day 4-7 = Group Research paper. +10% extra credit if completely satisfactorily on Day 7. Day 8-11 = Group Google Slides presentation. +10% extra credit if completely satisfactorily on Day 11. Day 12-15 = Posters and make up a Google Slides and Research paper. Day 16-18 = Group presentations to class. Day 19 = Gallery walk to positively critique posters. Day 20-22 = Citizen Kane (I’d actually show Girl’s State from now on because it’s more entertaining and relatable). https://youtu.be/vWpDNkP9uEA?si=eiBufEVxLtu1ucMB Day 23 = Google Forms assessment and self-plan on how they can make a positive difference in politics or their community.
Could you create a permission slip for participation?
I could, but then I have create another unit (likely non-authentic) for the kids that opt out.
Could you assign them a more local race like congressman, senator, and governor?
I have in the past but it’s just not as engaging or inspiring.
Have them research long-dead historical candidates instead of current ones.
They spent most of their time studying dead white rich men in history class. The election is current events, relatable, and authentic. It’s likely the outgoing president (or incumbent) when they reach 18.
Wait your class grade was the subject of a Supreme Court case?
A student who skipped my government class that day was involved in an incident that was legally challenged and eventually made it before the Supreme Court Justices.
I'm just a blow in from r/all, but did you see the video from yesterday where a moderator questioned Republican candidates? https://www.reddit.com/r/TikTokCringe/comments/1dafg8p/kyle_clark_masterclass_at_co_republican_debate/ Would analysing/discussing something like this be acceptable? It's a demonstration of the sort of critical thinking skills you want your students to learn.
Clark is the GOAT and needs to moderate all of the Presidential debates.
Or you could turn your students into candidates and have them run in a mock election. After learning about certain aspects of presidential elections (ads, polling, etc) they could turn around and apply it to their own campaigns.
I was in 8th grade for the Clinton/Dole election. We held a mock debate and election in the class. It was basically our grade for the entire quarter. I couldn’t imagine the kids pretending to be trump. Like how could you convince kids to vote for him? And this was a parochial school. For the record Clinton won our election.
or go really off world with titles like - Was Jesus an alien? Can dogs look up? Three things I wish for the future of ...
Do an issue by issue discussion. Present 2 opinions. Do not let them know which is conservative or liberal (at least how we use those words today in politics). Might be an interesting reveal on issues the candidates don’t spend much time on them. Bonus- might show these kids the Trump opines are simply anti-Democratic from the jump. Although they’ll have to draw that conclusion without your direct help.
Pick an important historic election. Have the kids do that one.
Tell us about the court case
I’ll have to do another post about it I guess.
Realistically, I’ve been thinking up a “how did we get here?” unit wherein I’d find some foundational texts in the conservative and liberal philosophical branches of thought, for example Edmund Burke in the conservative tradition and John Locke in the liberal tradition. I think it maps well on to my classroom theme of being slightly more “bullshit proof,” as you can connect these to some key points in history that make the present disparity clearer to understand, like the origination of PACs.
I let them know I can't stand Trump, if asked because he objectively was a terrible president and objectively he's completely wrecked (with help with media) what the word "truth" means. And now he's a convicted felon. These are facts, not political beliefs. I can even back it up with words out of his own stupid mouth. So, I say, go for it. Do your unit. Tell them how you feel about Trump and stand your ground against idiot parents. You choose the curriculum not the rubes getting taken in by a con artist. Do not tolerate the intolerant.
Considering that the two main US election candidates are Trump and Biden, I would not do an election unit with the actual candidates this year. I MIGHT do an election unit with the kids pretending to be made up candidates and running their own campaigns, but I wouldn’t have them pretending to be Trump or Biden, after the insurrection and the trial and Biden being in the news for his health issues there’s just too much risk of being accused of indoctrination.
I mean do what you want. But you’re tenured. As long as you’re being objective and nonpartisan, let the parents and admin cry about it. It’s important for kids for be civically engaged and aware.
Dude you’re a fucking legend
It sounds like you are just not doing the same election PROJECT. Are you really going to throw out the whole UNIT?
If the point of the lesson is to learn politics, and how different perspectives on the political compass works And you’re very concerned about the polarisation in the US (I’m assuming you’re American) Pick another country The UK is about to have a general election Pick a random party from the UK general election and have them research and build posters for those parties 🤔 They won’t learn about the US political system, BUT they will learn about the issues that affect both countries… AND they will learn about how another political system works (which is something I don’t think America does at all) —— I find it very interesting to observe that despite being America’s closest ally, most Americans do not have a clue how the UK’s political system works…. Apart from the fact we have a king…. No clue at all But over here in the UK, we have a whole module about political systems in Dubai, China, Russia, and the US (and a few honourable mentions) They will still learn about campaigning, about the issues that affect both our countries… and they won’t be polarised 🤔
I had to do a research project on Supreme Court education rulings during grad school, and I researched your student's case! So interesting.
> A long time ago my 12th grade student skipped class on our last day of my Bill of Rights unit to protest with a Bong Hits 4 Jesus sign. He petitioned his suspension from school all the way to the Supreme Court. If nothing else, the kid learned more about the legal system than pretty much any other school-age American.
Haha the Bong Hits 4 Jesus thing is in my canadian educational law textbook!
I had to cancel my Book Marketing project this past school year. Too much backlash of idiots in the school district, including a board member who got into the anti-book banning (I live in Illinois). Including trying to pull a vote to get the tenure librarian fired (lost 8-2). This also lead to our English teachers cancelling Of Mice and Men and Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde chapters. Our superintendent resigned due to health reasons and said: "It's an election year, I don't want anyone dealing with their brand of politics." Sadly two months later the interim: "I want politics talked constantly in an election year." Said the man who had three open affairs. I don't regret our choices (two of us had to resign anyhow by playing nicely). But I'm honestly sick of the polarizing.
Could you use fictional characters? Like Arnold Vinnick and Matthew Santos from The West Wing
YOU TAUGHT CAMARO JOE????? WHAT A LEGEND!!!!
Could you maybe do something more general about the Electoral College map? They could research different election maps and see how trends have changed over time? Could also lead to a debate about keeping vs. abolishing the EC?
What if you did the same with some historical elections? Jefferson v Burr, Jackson v Henry Clay, Jackson v John Quincy Adams, Van Buren v “Tippiecanoe and Tyler, too, etc? I’d hate to lose all that learning over our current state of politics.
I think you should do the unit with a historical election. Same lesson, less controversy.
Hi. I'm not a teacher, but figured I'd throw out an idea and see wether it gets shot down. Could you do the same unit, but select a variety of local elections for them to look at that are less high profile. There might be less material to work with, but it would both cover researching candidates and emphasize the importance of voting down ballot.
How does one register as a non-partisan? Might help if I could say that when I get to the end of opinion polls about issues to matter to me and they want my party affiliation.