maycocksean
Rock n' Roll Doggie Band-aid
Okay, the residents of Saipan are not allowed to vote in the Presidential election (unlike the "regular" U.s. territories) but nonetheless, we will be holding our own school Democratic "primary" on Super Tuesday. My high school American Government class is conducting the primary as part of their class. Part of the class is acting as Hillary Clinton's "campaign managers" on Saipan and the other group as acting as Barak Obama's "managers."
(For those of you wondering, what happened to a Republican party.: After two weeks of reading and research in the daily papers and online, we had a in-class primary with all the candidates, Republican and Democrat on the ballot. Only Clinton and Obama got any votes).
Today, I had the students make presentations to the 3/4th grade, 5th/6th grades, and 7/8th grades--all of whom will vote in our school primary next Tuesday--to tell them why the kids should vote for their candidate. This week they'll be making brochures (and they've also already gone pretty nuts with the campaign posters and flyers all over our little campus) and doing more presentations. I might even have them do some polling.
It was funny though, because the kind of advice I wanted to give them after todays presentations was the exact opposite of what I would have expected. Their presentations were just mind-numblingly dull. . .a protracted recitation of the candidate's platforms for health care, the war in Iraq, education etc--platforms that were essentially the same in just about all respects. I wanted to tell them--"Guys, never mind all this policy detail, you want to convince them that your candidate is better than the other. You've got to get them excited about your candidate." In short, I wanted to say "go for style over substance. Nobody cares about the substance. . .they're bored by it." And of course I was horrified at myself because that's exactly what we're all saying is wrong with this country. The debate is supposed to be about the "issues" not surface stuff, right?
So anyway, I created this thread so that if any of you have advice (or even specific campaign strategy for one of the candidates) that you'd like to share that will help these kids get the votes of elementary and middle school students, I welcome it and I will share it with the kids. I'm sure they'll be thrilled. Also, I'll keep you posted on how the race is looking from the perspective of a bunch kids from the island as we head towards Super Tuesday.
(For those of you wondering, what happened to a Republican party.: After two weeks of reading and research in the daily papers and online, we had a in-class primary with all the candidates, Republican and Democrat on the ballot. Only Clinton and Obama got any votes).
Today, I had the students make presentations to the 3/4th grade, 5th/6th grades, and 7/8th grades--all of whom will vote in our school primary next Tuesday--to tell them why the kids should vote for their candidate. This week they'll be making brochures (and they've also already gone pretty nuts with the campaign posters and flyers all over our little campus) and doing more presentations. I might even have them do some polling.
It was funny though, because the kind of advice I wanted to give them after todays presentations was the exact opposite of what I would have expected. Their presentations were just mind-numblingly dull. . .a protracted recitation of the candidate's platforms for health care, the war in Iraq, education etc--platforms that were essentially the same in just about all respects. I wanted to tell them--"Guys, never mind all this policy detail, you want to convince them that your candidate is better than the other. You've got to get them excited about your candidate." In short, I wanted to say "go for style over substance. Nobody cares about the substance. . .they're bored by it." And of course I was horrified at myself because that's exactly what we're all saying is wrong with this country. The debate is supposed to be about the "issues" not surface stuff, right?
So anyway, I created this thread so that if any of you have advice (or even specific campaign strategy for one of the candidates) that you'd like to share that will help these kids get the votes of elementary and middle school students, I welcome it and I will share it with the kids. I'm sure they'll be thrilled. Also, I'll keep you posted on how the race is looking from the perspective of a bunch kids from the island as we head towards Super Tuesday.