Dreams From My Classroom…
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Toni Bruno is a sax-playing junior at LaGuardia High School and member of the New York City Student Union; we’re pleased and proud to welcome her regular contributions to Insideschools’ blog this year.
This past Saturday, I had one of the most interesting and educational experiences of my life canvassing for Barack Obama with my parents . Spending the day involved in the political process in Pennsylvania made me think that high schools should be focusing on our two candidates in the months leading up to this pivotal election. I can’t think of anything more valuable to teach teenagers, who will be voting in the next election, then involvement and awareness during election years.
In my former elementary school, P.S.321, fourth and fifth graders are currently involved in an intensive election study. Every four years, teachers take two months out from Revolutionary War/Civil War curriculum in order to get the kids to understand our country’s political systems. The students run as candidates, choosing vice-presidents and discussing practical solutions to their own school problems.
If elementary school students can have such inspiring yet informative political educations, I can only imagine the ways in which a high school faculty could involve their students in the elections. For the first time in my life, my peers and I are really following and caring about our future president. But I notice that whenever our class discussions move in a potentially heated political direction, teachers flash the lights to calm things down, and remind us of our aim for the day (what cash crop saved Jamestown during the early Colonial period of American History?).
I would like to encourage high school staff members to embrace the interest that their students are taking in the coming elections. Encourage discussion and most of all activism. What more could you want to teach your students than citizenship and political involvement at crucial moments in history?
P.S. Obama ‘08!!!! (in case you hadn’t guessed).
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