While Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton battled it out on the national stage this fall, seniors Kailas Shekar, Daniel Jiang and Naman Sajwan campaigned against each other in AP Government/Economics teacher Kirk Abe’s sixth-period class.
Abe’s AP Government class was among the many classes that performed activities and simulations during election season. Students like Shekar, Jiang and Sajwan simulated campaigns that started in the beginning of October and involved several political parties, with their classmates acting as different campaign jobs and representing states.
“It was really fun and interesting to participate in the simulation,” Shekar said. “As one of the candidates, I learned a lot about how the actual candidates have to prepare and strategize.”
The simulation consisted of campaigning in different states, advertising and debating. Each candidate delivered their policies to the states and explained them in the debates, mirroring the discourse of actual presidential debates.
People who played minor roles like the citizen representatives for states, such as senior Julie Cai, also found the simulation to be informative.
“I learned how different events can affect the polls in states,” Cai said. “Even though the polls started out fairly close, it became very clear how a swing state could lean so far one way due to a poor performance in a debate or an inappropriate campaign ad.”
Some students like Cai were also old enough to vote in the actual 2016 U.S. election. Cai found the simulation to be important in learning about the election process and about the numerous propositions that she also voted on.
“The election simulation taught me a lot about the election process and helped me understand how my vote played a role in the overall result,” Cai said. “[Abe] also gave us materials to help us become more familiar with the propositions on the ballot, which helped me make decisions that I was previously clueless about.”
Cai also believed her interest in the real election was bolstered by the class’s simulation.
“After the simulation, I was definitely more interested and invested in the election,” Cai said. “I didn’t fully understand my place in politics before, but now I am much more informed.”
A week before Election Day, the students representing the states voted on their preferred candidate.
“I felt proud to win my period’s election,” Shekar said. “Even though it was just a simulation, we put in a lot of work and effort into it so I was glad to see it have some sort of reward.”
While Abe decided to have his class perform full-out simulations, other teachers, like history teacher Kim Anzalone, had their students vote on the presidential candidates and on various propositions. Many of her students believe their in-class elections increased their focus on the real election.
“I paid more attention to the actual election because it was interesting to see how the results of our class compared to the actual results,” junior Charles Qi said.
While most high school students are not old enough to register to vote yet, the activities and simulations about the elections educated the students about the process to help prepare them for when they vote.
“The simulations definitely taught us a lot about the election process, so we will be knowledgeable about future elections that we actually will be involved in,” Shekar said.