Introduction
How do you determine which presidential candidate you should vote for? Do you look at the issues? Do you examine the character of the candidate? Do you think about the challenges of the president's job? Do you vote for the candidate who matches your ethnicity or gender? Do you vote the way your parents or friends are voting?
I teach 5 th grade students. I have to teach them how to make a decision to vote for president. What should I tell them? Should they look at the issues or watch a debate? Should they look at character? Should I tell them to do it the way I do it? (How do I do it?) Or should I tell them to use ideals such as honesty, integrity, charitableness, courage, intelligence, and fairness that might be unrealistic? Then do I shake my head when they show disinterest and cynicism for our government?
Many of my students come from lower economic backgrounds. The 2008 Census shows that only 63% of the populations in the Mid-Atlantic United States voted in the 2008 presidential election, and the percentage goes down as the income level and educational levels decrease. 54.9% of Mid-Atlantic voters with a high school diploma voted and only 39.9 % of Mid-Atlantic voters with no high school diploma voted. For those with less than $10,000 in income, it falls to 38%. 1 Actually these figures are greater than previous presidential elections and they are not expected to remain as high as they were in 2008. Many of my students have no model of voting in their home. No doubt politics and the role of the president are not discussed there, let alone methods for selecting a president.
I have designated a number of classroom jobs for my students to perform during the school year. I require the students to fill out an application for the jobs they want. Before they do this, we discuss what each job entails- the job description. It would be crazy to apply for a job when you don't know what it involves. The same goes for voting.
Before my students can make a decision to vote in a mock election for president, I want my students to understand the job description for the president. How can they vote, regardless of the method they may choose, if they don't understand the job. There's a partial job description in the Constitution, but that's just a piece of the story. We have to look further. We have to peer at the beginning to see how it all started and then see how the presidents have been developing the job through the years- particularly the most recent years. The job of the president has changed and will no doubt change more. When we look at the Constitution and the ensuing historical interpretations that the presidents have created, maybe it won't seem so detached and irrelevant. Perhaps the language will make sense to the students as they use it and apply it.
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