Given the tremendous interest and wall-to-wall TV coverage of this year's presidential election. I doubt that I'm the only teacher that is facing this dilemma.
The "Un-Civics" Lesson Dilemma
While the Democratic elders wring their hands about what do about the Michigan and Florida delegations, as a fourth Grade teacher I have a much larger problem to deal with. How do I explain to the enthusiastic bunch of fourth graders in my class, that everything I had taught them about the presidential election and political process was a big, fat lie?
When Senator Obama’s picture appeared on the front page of the Washington Post the day after the Iowa caucuses, my class of predominately African American, high poverty level students were fascinated with the possibility of a "President Obama". They asked endless questions about what a caucus was, did all those white people really vote for Senator Obama, how do campaigns work, how long was the campaign going to take and who would decide who would be in the election in November. My explanation, that each candidate had to campaign for people to vote for them in each state and then a certain number "delegates" would be awarded, was simple and straightforward enough for the class to understand. However, I made the mistake of teaching them that when all the primaries and caucuses were over, the candidate with the most delegates would be nominated at the Democratic convention in Denver this summer.
My students have been avidly following the presidential election process, watching some of the debates, following the voting in each state and excitedly greeting me the morning after a primary with "Obama won, he got lots more delegates last night". When the term "Super delegate" began to be tossed about on the news programs, I explained who they were and what role they had played in previous conventions. Now that Senator Clinton has decided continue her fight for the nomination with a strategy of convincing enough Super delegates into awarding her the nomination despite the fact that she will never have a majority of pledged delegates, I have a serious dilemma. How do I explain that even if Senator Obama wins the most elected delegates, the most votes and the most states, he won’t be the Democratic nominee?
Can any of the Democratic Party leadership give me some advice on how to respond to my students when they ask me why this is happening? How about an explanation for why playing by the rules and winning fair and square isn’t enough? Or more importantly, why should they ever bother voting when they’re old enough if their votes won’t make a hill of beans difference in the end? Since Senator Clinton is in the "Solutions" business, maybe she can come up with some credible answers to those questions that a bunch of fourth graders might buy because I certainly can’t. Great Un-Civics Lesson you‘re providing the next generation Senator Clinton!