I have three
children in our schools that are within walking distance of our
house. Luis is in seventh grade, Kim in fifth and Clarissa who has
just entered in kindergarten. I am very busy because this is voting
season and I am working for a governor who will effect good change.
Luis and Kim do well getting to school and coming home but I still
take and pick up Clarissa at her proper school times.
I was
surprised when Luis and Kim both said they were thinking who in
their class might be the best leader because their teacher said they
were going to vote on Friday, if they had any questions about voting
she would be glad to help out. I was shocked when Clarissa wouldn’t
let me take off her name tag saying the other kids needed to see her
name so they could say she should be the first one in line .
How early,
Dr. Webb, should our schools introduce how one votes into the
curriculum? Don’t you agree that kindergarten is too early?
RT
No I don’t
agree that kindergarten is too early. If you stop and think about
how and when Clarissa was two you helped understand that sometimes
she had to share with others; other times others had to share with
her. That was certainly her first experience learning how to vote.
No RT it is never too early to learn how to ...vote. More power to
Clarissa’s teacher.
RT I just
went out to vote. Whenever I do I always remember that Thomas
Jefferson way back in the 1770’s said that good citizenship results
when its citizens have learned how to vote. Like you I want to be
considered a good citizen and so I have gone to vote.
I discovered
a change in Massachusetts law which calls for one to be 18 in order
to vote but at 16 or 17 a young person may stand within the polls to
watch how the voting process goes on.
That is a
wonderful change in our law. It respects the ability to think, to
observe, to figure out the rights and wrongs of future citizens
rather than coming in at 18 uninformed. Since my son, Luis is 13 and
in seventh grade I would hope his class participates in an election
of one of them as a leader. At 13 it certainly is not too soon for
the teacher to have posed a situation for this to happen.
Kim hearing
what had happened in Luis’s class wanted a similar experience in his
fifth grade class, feeling they were ready to vote for things that
were important to them. He got some friends together to tell the
principal how much they could learn if they each year spent time
learning how to vote. Would you believe, RT the principal took this
idea to his teachers and it became part of their curriculum.
Now you are
going to ask me what is done in kindergarten to begin the schooling
process of learning how to vote. Remember when Clarissa came home
with her classroom’s fish tank before our Columbus day holiday? She
had volunteered to feed and take care of the fish during the weekend
saying she had no cat who might steal and gobble up the fish. Other
children also volunteered but did not explain how they would take
care of the fish. The teacher then asked all the student to raise
their hands as the teacher put her hand over each of the volunteers’
heads. Clarissa got the most votes of those hoping to take the fish
home to take care of them over the weekend when we had no school.
Those kids were voters at 5 and 6. RT it’s never too young to begin
to understand how important each of our votes is in keeping our
government doing well and each of us, as Jefferson forecast becoming
good citizens.
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