Local educators embrace presidential campaigns as teachable moments

AT A GLANCE

Here’s a partial sample of one of the many class lessons offered online by educational publishers and school associations to help K-12 instructors in public and private schools across America take full advantage of the teachable moments from this fall’s presidential campaign.

Connecticut-based Education World’s website states: “In the classroom, teachers this fall have a unique opportunity to teach about elections and the election process, current issues, the importance of making informed decisions and the importance of voting.”

Suggested classroom studies and activities for various grades include:

An election scavenger hunt where students search for key words in newspaper election coverage stories.

America’s contentious presidential campaign may look a tad messy but to some area teachers, the White House race provides a crystal-clear window of teaching opportunity.

Many local schools just opened for the new school year, but local high school government teachers are already focusing on ways to incorporate the clash between Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and Republican candidate Donald Trump into their classroom instruction.

And the White House candidates have already paid a lot of attention to Ohio.

Clinton and Trump – both of whom have campaigned in Southwest Ohio repeatedly – have visited Ohio more than any other state and both are returning Aug. 31 and Sept. 1 for campaign speeches at the American Legion's 98th national convention in Cincinnati.

“Too often we teach democracy as if is something boring and distant — carried out through dull procedures by an elected few in Washington, D.C., with little action on our part or connection to our daily lives,” said University of Cincinnati’s Sarah Stitzlein, associate professor of education and co-editor of the online Democracy & Education publication.

But for teachers, said Stitzlein, this fall’s campaign is a once-every-four-year opportunity to transform apathy into curiosity.

That’s the way Badin High School government teacher Patrick Keating sees it.

“I love it and I relish in it,” said the veteran instructor, who plans to have students in the Butler County Catholic school put on a mock presidential debate among many other election-based activities. “I will use it extensively and the kids will feed off my energy.”

Toss in the historical significance of Clinton being the first female candidate from a major party and Keating — along with other area teachers — see the coming fall election as rich with teachable moments.

Moreover, in some ways Clinton’s gender pioneer status is analogous to President Barack Obama’s ground-breaking campaign as a the nation’s first major party, African-American candidate in 2008.

The fall of 2008 saw the classroom walls of many area schools plastered with then-candidate Obama’s photo – as well as Republican opponent U.S. Senator John McCain — as teachers took full advantage of that presidential campaign’s heightened interest.

“Given that Hillary Clinton may be the first woman to be elected President of the United States, I would anticipate that teachers would use this opportunity to discuss the history and present status of women’s equality in our country,” Stitzlein said.

Classrooms gear up for election learning

Students have only been in school for one week, but Lakota East High School government teacher Tisha Grote’s classroom is already adorned with student-created political posters from past presidential elections.

“It’s fantastic. It’s so much fun to teach every four-year presidential election. I have already seen my students more engaged in the (presidential) primaries last spring than I ever have,” said Grote, adding she anticipates student interest will peak even higher in the coming weeks.

“Current events is 20 percent of our class,” she said, and her students will be required to watch the presidential and vice president debates, following up with class assignments and discussions.

“For me what’s more exciting than anything is to see the students actually engaged and excited about what’s going on,” Grote said.

Mason High School government teacher Maria Correale Mueller plans to dive deep into the campaign for classroom lessons.

“Students in my class the year of the presidential election have the voluminous and vast array of media coverage at their fingertips to pique their interest and demonstrate the relevance of linkage institutions in American politics, in addition to the presidential election process, the drama of debates and the actual election day,” she said.

“My students also have a collective, on-going blog where they will describe and converse about connections between our supplemental reading material and current news articles they find relevant,” said Mueller from the Warren County high school. “We will be addressing public opinion, political socialization, political parties, elections, voting, campaign processes, news media, and interest groups from now until Halloween.”

Lakota West High School senior Nicholas Lorenz is eager to learn from the election in his government class.

“I think it’s important for kids to be informed on who they support,” said Lorenz, who is keenly following the campaigns, though he’ll not be old enough to vote on Election Day.

His mother, Lisa Lorenz, agrees but offers some caution saying, “I think it’s fine to incorporate the campaign into their lesson plans as long as it’s done in a fair and unbiased way.”

“Our kids are so impressionable with young minds,” said Lisa Lorenz, who teaches at a local Catholic school, “so it’s our job to teach our kids how to think (about politics), but not what to think.”