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Health & Fitness

Isn't that what predators do??

Right lesson, wrong classroom.

In the wild, predators will isolate the old, young, sick, injured or otherwise vulnerable in order to make an easy kill. There are parallels to that pattern in human criminal behavior. Shadows of it fall all the way down to political power-grabs and schoolyard bullies.

To counter that negative mind-set, anti-bullying programs teach inclusion, not exclusion. They teach participation, community, and connection. We expect our children to be tolerant and kind, and for teachers to lead by example in this regard. At least I do.

The better angels of our American nature are egalitarian. We are the great American melting pot, and what better time to teach that than during election season? Why not teach our higher ideals to those who have  a chance to make them a reality - our children.

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Why, then, would a school "mock election" exemplify the very worst of our current politics? Why would any thinking educator create an exercise that functions more like a hungry cheetah and less like a democracy?

As I understand it, second grade children in our area are being required to bring a special signed permission slip in order to participate in a simple civics lesson - a mock election. That's like requiring signed permission to turn in your math homework. The real problem is that children who do not return the signed permission slip will not be allowed to vote. Not all children have the support they need for even the most basic schoolwork, much less special lessons like this. Heck, some of us can't even get yearbooks or t-shirts ordered on time - how easy would it be to overlook one more paper, one more signature?

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This isn't a lesson in civics and democracy. This is a lesson in isolating the vulnerable. This is a lesson to a small child that the people who were supposed to protect and teach them will exclude them in a heartbeat all over a piece of paper the child may or may not understand.

Some attempt has been made to justify this new requirement as a way to involve parents or as a way to teach the students the responsibility they will have as a voting adult.

Bat scat. Bull pucky. Fresh steaming piles of meadow muffins.

This isn't an exercise involving teenagers who need to prepare for the adult world...this exercise involves small children who are a decade or more away from voter registration. These kids are learning responsibility for studying spelling words, or waiting their turn in the lunch line. They are being taught to include kids that are a different...not to be excluded by their teachers. Talk about a mixed message!

I am so very grateful that my child is not involved with this, and that she didn't have partisan politics injected into her mock election experience.

Not having a dog in the fight, as the saying goes, I've tried to look at this objectively. The problem is the age group. Mock elections are great, but the "permission to vote" paperwork is enourmously age-inappropriate. If it was high school I'd be all for it. High school kids need to learn adult responsilbilities.  Teens need to know how elections really work. High school kids can debate the value (or lack thereof) of "permission" (registration, ID, etc) to vote and teens have the wherewithall to be responsible for meeting voting requirements if they choose to participate - a second grader does not. A young child is vulnerable to feelings of shame, embarassment and isolation that a teen wouldn't even notice. Being excluded from the vote would be a negative, detrimental experience for a primary school child. Especially if that exclusion came because of an adult's mistake, not the child's. 

If there is any mistake here, it is bullying young children in the name of mimicking divisive, unreasonable politics. Let all the kids vote, no matter what. Fair, open, accessible elections are lesson enough...a lesson many adults still need to learn.

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