A little background: I teach a Constitution class to eighth graders. It is a year long course where we study the beginnings of, the historical significance of events, and the present day interpretation as it applies to current events. Included in this course is the study of landmark court cases and current cases.
I am a political junkie which is why I love teaching this class. It is hard work for me, for I scour newspapers, cable news, network news. I found a wonderful website: www.izzit.org which allows teachers to print current events from various sources. And for other teachers out there, it is free!
I met with my class today. We begin each class with what's in the news. Once we got beyond the Smookie's baby's gender, the real discussion started.
The first student brought up Donald Trump and wondered why the birth certificate issue is still hanging on.
Then they brought up the vast amounts of money being spent on negative ads. They concluded that if placed at the perfect time in a campaign, the ads can influence those who are low information voters.
Next, they moved on to Florida and wondered how a state could simply remove people from the voters registration records.
We discussed. And then the class- all 35 of them- became eerily quiet.
They asked the question of the year: doesn't all this money and voter suppression make our government less democratic?
They decided Citizen's United and voter suppression seemed to fix the election.
They decided that money will allow a few billionaires to control the election. They decided that voter suppression is a way to steal the election.
There ultimate question: how do the people fix this so government is by the people and for the people.
I had no answer. I don't know what to do anymore. I do know that with each passing day, I get more worried and more depressed.
What answer would you give these kids?