Elementary School Forced To Cancel Mock Election Because Kids Are Acting Like Adults (VIDEO)

I taught elementary school for a lot of years. It was always exciting when national elections came along and helped us to teach the kids about how representative democracy really works.

I remember standing in my classroom as President Obama was sworn in, looking at the faces of my students. Brown eyes, blue eyes, green eyes, every possible skin tone, 20 different shades of hair color. We were all riveted, and we all felt the power of the moment.

One of the best ways to teach children about democracy is to hold classroom or school wide elections. Sometimes we would only vote on issues or positions within our classroom, but sometimes there were interesting city or state-wide elections.

In presidential election years, the stakes were always higher and the passions a little bit stronger. It was fun to guide the kids through discussions without tipping my hand about my own preferences.  After each election, we’d talk about how we could learn to respect each other’s views and come together as a community.

This year everything is different.

While I am no longer in front of an elementary school classroom, thousands of my colleagues still are.

One story from the state of New York illustrates just how far out of control our democracy has become this year.

RawStory reports that young students at Jericho Elementary School in Centereach, New York, have had their traditional mock election cancelled.

 

School officials had to stop the election because children were echoing the behaviors and language of adults. Some were chanting, “Trump! Trump! Trump!” There were negative statements made about Muslim students. Insulting words were used about other minority groups.

Glen Rogers, the school’s principal, said that the election was cancelled because the school hosts a diverse population of students. He did not want any of his students to feel uncomfortable with the derogatory comments being made.

Isn’t that just awful?

As a retired teacher, my heart breaks to hear that students are learning so well from their adult models.

As a voter who has been made to feel pretty damned uncomfortable with the ugly rhetoric coming from the Republican party in this election, I am sorry that no one is able to cancel the election for me.

Maybe we’d all be better off if we were just voting for our favorite lunch next week, like the children at Jericho Elementary will be doing.

You can watch Principal Rogers explaining his thought process here.

 

Featured image by Brad Flickinger via Flickr. Available through Creative Commons Attribution Generic License 2.0

Karen is a retired elementary school teacher with many years of progressive activism behind her. She is the proud mother of three young adults who were all arrested with Occupy Wall Street. To see what she writes about in her spare time, check out her blog at "Empty Nest, Full Life"