High School Students Get Out the Vote
As the election season comes to a close, I have to take a moment to acknowledge the hard work of our history department during the seamingly endless time period between the primaries and this week. The history department, Tom Murphy, Bill Bailey, Mark Bledstein and Nick O’Han have been the community’s teachers and have educated faculty and students alike through a series of assemblies and through timely elective offerings.
The assemblies have included presentations, mock debates and discussions on the primaries, each candidate participating in the primaries, the issues and election strategy in the primaries. Once the candidates were determined, we were able to start the year with a workshop on the electoral college, then to the candidates’ position on a variety of issues, including energy, foreign policy, gay marriage, and the economy.
Action has been inspired by these assemblies. Almost every weekend in October, faculty and students have travelled to far and wide to canvas; one of the options for students in Bill Bailey’s American Government and Politics class was to travel with Bill to Pennsylvania. For the students who participated in this option, they were quite shocked by the blatant racism they encountered while canvasing for Barack Obama. In fact, members of the department were worried about what students may be exposed to but ultimately it was decided that students need to experience a difference of opinion to say the least (we are a pretty bias school with the majority of the community supporting Obama openly; we do have community members also supporting McCain). Today, even more students, participating in Bill’s Election minimester are on their way to Pennsylvania; others are headed to Obama’s Brooklyn headquarters to help out today. It is terrific to see the engagement of our students; this election is important to them. Regardless of the outcome, on Wednesday, Nov. 5 at 8:30 AM, the community will gather together as a community to support each other and to discuss the results in a thoughtful and respectful manner, as all assemblies require.