Primaries provide opportunities for participatory civics lessons

By Del Stover

02/03/04 -- Even though she's too young to vote, 17-year-old Caitlyn Franciscovich of Weare, N.H., has been immersed in politics in the weeks leading up to her state's presidential primary.

As a senior at John Stark Regional High School, she's helped stage a mock election at her school, talked the town into letting the school use voting booths for the election, and arranged for campaign visits by the daughters of Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Rep. Richard Gephardt (D-Mo.).

"It came out a lot better than I'd planned," says Franciscovich, who hopes to study communications when she enrolls in college. "I learned a lot about the candidates, their stands on the issues, and how hard it is to get candidates to come to a school."

Yet, as hard as it is to convince candidates to visit your school, the bigger challenge appears to be getting young voters to the polls. In the 2000 presidential election, only 26.7 percent of 18-year-olds voted.

At schools across the nation -- but particularly in Iowa and New Hampshire -- teachers and school administrators are doing what they can to boost these numbers.

This year's presidential election campaign is serving up a powerful learning opportunity, and a lot of educators are using it to teach students about politics, citizenship, and the importance of elections.

According to Concord High School Assistant Principal Joanne McGlynn, the fact that the city of Concord is both a media center and one of the few Democratic strongholds in New Hampshire helped the school attract six of this year's Democratic contenders, including primary winner Kerry.

Much of the advance work to bring the candidates to the school was done by student volunteers from two media literacy classes, McGlynn says. These classes spent a lot of time studying media coverage surrounding the candidates' visits.

Students also organized a mock election, which was part of a statewide mock primary sponsored by New Hampshire Public Television. More than 28,000 students at 116 schools voted. Kerry won with 28 percent of the vote, and Howard Dean came in second with 23 percent.

Students volunteer

Also at Concord High, history teacher Christopher Makris has been encouraging his students to volunteer with one of the political campaigns. Students put up signs, worked phone banks, dropped off election materials at homes, and inputted data into computers.

"It exposes them to the political process," Makris says, "and I think it allows them to see that, in the future, they have a role to play . . . that their work can matter in the future of America. That sounds incredibly corny, but I think it's true."

Twelve hundred miles away, at Central Academy in Des Moines, Iowa, teacher Michael Schaffer did more than encourage his students to get involved. Students in his 12th-grade government class earned 15 percent of their grade by working a minimum of 20 hours in a political campaign.

The class requirement gives students a first-hand look at how politics works, he says. Many of his students had the opportunity to meet the candidates or hear them speak, and they saw how ordinary citizens played a role in influencing the state caucuses.

The lessons already have hit home, he says. A number of students were so enthused by the experience they worked upwards of 40 hours for a candidate, and many of his 18-year-olds participated in the caucuses as registered voters.

The up-close-and-personal campaigning that surrounds the Iowa caucuses makes for a unique opportunity for students to observe the democratic process, and "we certainly are going to take advantage of it," Schaffer says. "If we catch them young and get them involved in this stuff, they will be participants [for life]."

But it's not just older students who are getting an education in democracy. At Table Mound School in Dubuque, Iowa, second through sixth graders recently participated in a mock political convention.

Before the event, some students took on the role of the candidates, while others helped run the candidates' campaigns. Classes were divided into states, and students served as delegates.

Political maneuvering

According to sixth-grade teacher Joe Dolan, who coordinated the event, the political maneuvering in school was intense, with sixth graders attempting to play kingmaker. But the fifth-grade class soon responded by lobbying younger delegates and swung the nomination in favor of Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.).

The schoolwide exercise offered up an assortment of exciting moments, Dolan says. To swing votes, Edwards' supporters made a deal to put Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.) on the ticket as the vice presidential candidate.

Iowa First Lady Christie Vilsack spoke to the convention, and a credentials fight resulted in the principal and district superintendent losing their status as delegates.

It's a lot of work," Dolan says. "But students see they have a responsibility to be a good citizen, and part of that is voting. It took a little time maybe from their regular studies, but as long as we have caucuses in Iowa, and it's in the daily news, it's an excellent opportunity to tie in a civics event with something that's happening right here in the state."

The caucuses also proved an exciting learning experience at Wright Elementary School in Des Moines. Four students were chosen to participate in the Scholastic Kids Press Corps, a national program that has 60 students aged 10-14 covering the race for the White House.

The students attended numerous political events in the weeks proceeding the caucuses, interviewed the candidates, and wrote articles for the Scholastic Web site and magazine, says Beverly Stewart, a fifth-grade teacher who worked with the students. Students also met NBC news anchor Tom Brokaw and were interviewed on MSNBC. "The biggest thing they got out of it was being there as history was happening," Stewart says. "They were a part of history."

Controversial project

With no invasion of presidential candidates to his state as yet, Phoenix, Ariz., teacher Timothy Rockey has put his students at Sunnyslope High School to work conducting a public opinion poll on the presidential race. His students are presenting the statistically valid findings to political leaders at the state and local level.

"I believe my students' results are more accurate than most research firms, because they could get people to participate who would not participate in normal calls [from professional pollsters]," he says.

This year's project is far less controversial than the voters guide published by students during the 2002 election. That project proved very educational, as one candidate was unhappy with her portrayal and threatened to sue.

The candidate later backed down, but a county prosecutor began an investigation into a possible violation of state campaign finance law. Ads sold to fund the guide meant private money was being used by a public institution to possibly influence the election.