Teachers adapt curriculum to teach about election

“Vote Na-MAN to be your MAN for president!” senior Naman Sajwan yelled during his sixth-period AP Government simulation, a class taught by history teacher Kirk Abe.

He was mimicking propaganda strategies used in the current election as a Libertarian candidate running for president.

Though economics is usually taught in the first semester, Abe chose to teach his students AP Government in the fall so that the concepts they learned in class would be relevant to the 2016 election.

Because the rhetoric, language and themes presented during presidential campaigns and debates are at times inappropriate for younger audiences, teachers who have taught about the elections for years have had to make slight changes in their curricula.

“Profanity and attacks have always been prevalent in elections, but this year, the candidates have taken it to a new extent,” Abe said.

Because seniors are generally more mature, instead of censoring his lectures, Abe tries to gear discussions toward his audience, while “trying his best to be truthful.”

While addressing seniors with a professional take on politics, Abe has encouraged students to voice their opinions on the candidates and their campaigns.

“We have to talk about what is going on right now, and we can’t just avoid it. With seniors able to vote soon, they understand learning about politics is important,” Abe said.

This year, to put students in the shoes of the presidential candidates, Abe has added a presidential simulation. Students learn about the importance of winning over swing states and gain experience using advertising strategies, political polls and media attention.

“The simulation was better than the presidential debates because the student candidates were more professional than the actual candidates,” said senior Michelle Xu, who played a representative of a swing state in the simulation. “There was less scandal talk and more issue-related discussion.”

In the simulation, three students play either the Democratic candidate, Republican candidate or the Libertarian candidate. Each political party has a campaign manager and spin doctor who manage their campaign. Once parties choose which ads they want to air, they must run their ideas by the Federal Election Commission, a group of students who check each ad. Some students play journalists for CNN and Fox News, reporting any scandals in the election, while other students are in charge of the polls in swing states. The simulations started in the middle of October and will end close to the actual election day.

“The whole goal of the simulation is to learn something from the current election and incorporate what actual candidates are doing in the current election,” Abe said.

While many high schoolers genuinely care about the election and have intellectual discussions with their peers about presidential candidates outside of the classroom, middle schoolers are more susceptible to the obscene language and adult-themed topics presented during debates.

Eighth-grade core teachers at Redwood Middle School, including Joshua Marks, Shannon Aviña and Alexis Nesper have  taken the challenge of tackling this unique election and teaching it to their students in simpler terms. These teachers have assigned watching the presidential debates as either homework or extra credit.

The teachers have created assignments that require students to analyze what presidential candidates are saying and to critically think about issues candidates present in their speeches. Using similar techniques in an argumentative essay, students prepare responses to draw conclusions based on the effectiveness, content and message of each candidate.

“I have found this to be a good opportunity to introduce fallacious arguments to my students, and have asked them to keep track of every time a candidate tries to mislead the audience or straight out lies,” Marks said.

Though the election has been far from G or PG-rated, with many profane, often graphic insults used, Marks is not particularly concerned.

“[The vulgarity] has been a non-issue for me,” Marks said. “Eighth graders are practically high schoolers and should have the maturity to handle the unsavory side of this election.”

However, though the eighth-grade core teachers are assigning similar assignments regarding the current election, Aviña has chosen to exclude talking about some adult-themed topics such as the sexual assault allegations against Trump with her 12- and 13-year-old students.

“It puts us middle school teachers in a tough spot,” Aviña said. “We didn’t really feel like we could reasonably ask our students to research and respond to current news [such as sexual assaults related to Trump], knowing that they would inevitably encounter material that is probably more appropriate for high school students.”

On her class website, Aviña has pages entitled “Election 2016 @ WSJ” and “2016 Presidential Race” where she posts articles, polls and graphics regarding the current election from Wall Street Journal. During in-class discussions, she tackles controversial topics such as the federal court system in a way that is “very legal and balanced.”

“While many students may be aware of what has been said by presidential candidates, it’s hard to discuss sensitive issues,” Aviña said. “We have to be respectful of families’ beliefs or sensitivities and discuss these matters in a way that doesn’t give away one’s personal political views.”