I went to my daughter's Back to School Night and lobbied the Principal, Vice Principal and all of her teachers to consider giving no homework on Election Night (with the possible exception of a US History/Government teacher assigning the homework of watching Election Night results). I was pleased that everyone seemed on board with the idea and surprised that the most enthusiastic response came from the AP Chemistry teacher, since his class is the most intense.
While it should apply for the mid-term elections too, I think we'll meet less resistance this year in particular since we'll have a new President no matter what. I think it's also appealing to the teachers, since they probably want to watch, too.
Since most probably haven't had their Back to School Night yet, I encourage parents to take advantage of that opportunity to ask the teachers and administrators to consider no homework on Election Night. I will also be following up with an email in a few weeks.
Of course, this isn't just to give adults the night off. I will be requiring my daughter to watch with me. In addition to discussing the electoral college, here in California, we'll be discussing propositions, and keeping an eye on the results for the House and Senate. My daughter has also been watching The West Wing with me, so she's particularly interested in U.S. government and politics. That (and Hamilton, of course) have already given us many opportunities to discuss issues, so I think she's actually looking forward to it, too!
I hope you'll join us in educating our families about the political process and ensuring that our children look forward to the civic responsibilities of voting in the future. I believe that no homework on Election Night is a small step in raising (or at least, not decreasing) voter turn-out for elections to come.
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