Ideas for Teaching Students About Elections, Even in Polarized Times

As the 2024 election nears, many schools, teachers, and principals are apprehensive in deciding how to address the event. Understandably, they feel pressure to appease a number of divergent views on how the event should be approached—from parents to staff to the students themselves. However, I would argue that the worst possible outcome would be to avoid addressing the election altogether. Daily, students see media regarding the election and candidates (mostly from TikTok, unfortunately), so we can’t pretend that nothing significant is occurring in early November.

I believe it would surely be a missed opportunity not to engage in this work. If the national discourse over polarized politics is going to change (I hope within my lifetime), we can begin to do that work in schools. Here are some concrete methods to help you in your approach to election programming.

Instructional Events

As with any new activity or subject matter, students need a baseline understanding of the content to fully engage, and ideally this begins in the classroom. Though a government class would be the obvious place to start, that is typically only available to high school juniors and seniors.

Civic discussions: At my school, we are integrating creative election and civic discussions into classes. For example, the seventh-grade history classes are discussing lateral reading and elections topics, like compulsory voting and presidential powers. Our eighth-grade history classes are sending postcards to alumni—encouraging them to vote using postcards that one of our high school graphic design classes created.

Science exercises: You can also design lessons to address any environmentally focused propositions on the ballot. Our high school eco-friendly service learning group is analyzing a California environmental proposition in class using materials from the nonpartisan group CalMatters.

Art-based assignments: To incorporate an artistic learning experience within the context of the electoral process, the high school graphic design classes are creating campaign designs for our school’s mock election.

Economic analysis: Lastly, the high school economics classes analyzed the recent presidential debate to parse out economic issues discussed by the candidates (and how realistic those ideas are).

Provide Different Options for Instruction

It’s important to recognize that student election instruction should be both in-class and opt-in. There is benefit for all students to hear a consistent message about election issues, but there should also be space for students who are very passionate about the election to unpack those issues in a smaller setting with like-minded peers.

Not all class settings or discussions are appropriate to dive deeper into the content (and not all teachers or fellow students would be keen either). Hence, we’re also taking time to host opt-in student discussions during lunch about the recent debate, as well as the election in general. A teacher will lead the middle school discussions, while a small group of high school students who took time to analyze the debate will be leading the high school discussion.

These discussions will also continue after the election to unpack the results and where we see the election issues going forward (and there’s always another election on the horizon—the midterms in this case).

Experiential Learning with Student Events

Experiential learning is a great avenue for students to play an active role in the learning process.

Mock election: On October 8, the California secretary of state hosted the California Student Mock Election, which we participated in. There, students were asked to vote on the presidential candidates, as well as a number of statewide measures and propositions that appear on the actual ballot. To prepare the students, we focused on two propositions in particular, one addressing environmental protections and the other on criminal justice reform. The graphic design classes created ballot education material for the students, explaining the pros and cons of each measure. Then, we conducted the ballot voting during lunch.

To fully simulate the election process, we had early voting and Election Day voting. The first week of October, students were sent the ballot primer material for the two propositions they would be voting on, and then electronic ballots (Google Forms) were sent at the end of the first week. Students could submit their Google Form to complete the early voting, or they could vote in person during lunch the second Thursday of October. Results were compiled and sent to the California secretary of state.

Interacting with candidates: It’s important for students to hear from the candidates themselves, and we invited the two candidates vying for our local congressional seat (CA-49) to speak to the students. One candidate spoke to the high school students in mid-September, and the other in mid-October.

It’s crucial to invite both candidates from a race if you are going to have a speaker, not only to remain impartial, but also to impress on the students the importance of respectfully listening to speakers they don’t agree with (a skill I truly hope they take with them to their future college campus). If you’re trying to contact a candidate to invite them to your school, you’ll see that most (if not all) candidates have a campaign website with contact information. If they don’t, your local county party (Republican or Democrat) should have the contact information for the respective campaigns. Before the speaker comes to campus, you should clearly communicate to the school community (students and parents) that the speaker will be coming and that both candidates were invited.

How each school chooses to approach the election will depend on the needs and interests of their school community, but I implore schools to take advantage of the election season and model for our students how a respectful, pluralistic society can engage in civil discourse. America will thank you later!