Okay, so on Thursday I'm going to go do my second "lecture" to one of the third-grade classes at my school about elections and what they're about. The last one went really well. I got through how America was the land of immigrants, and how people came here fleeing dictatorial oppression (brought up how my grandfather's parents walked from rural Russia to Odessa to flee the Czar). I brought up slavery, women's rights, and other indications of how the franchise has extended. I brought up how we are lucky to be in a country that has free elections. Really smart group, always asking good questions. (One kid actually raised his hand when I said the US was the world's oldest democracy and said, "What about Athens?" ATHENS! I didn't know about Athens 'til I was 10! I said, "Oldest
surviving democracy. Athens ran into some problems.")
Now I'm faced with harder topics.
How do you explain to a bunch of idealistic 8-9-year-olds the workings of the ELECTORAL COLLEGE? The state-by-state dynamics, the ideas of swing states, the fact that we have such a system in the first place? Any advice?