An Election We Needed

The past few weeks at the school have been electrified by the buzz of democracy. Even though our students aren't even close to voting age, they have been very excited about the Presidential election.

On Wednesday, November 5th I headed to the 7th grade lunch period to check in with the kids. On the way back inside, several of our students asked why there hadn't been any announcements regarding the election that day. I thought about it, then told them to stay tuned for 8th period.

At that time, without any heads-ups, I broadcast the final couple of minutes of President-elect Obama's victory speech from Chicago.

I then said the following to the school:

As everyone knows, yesterday the United States of America held an historic election.

It was an election that inspired millions and millions of people to vote, and millions of students, including CIS 339 students, to learn about important issues and participate in our democracy. We can all be proud to be Americans today.

I am extremely proud to be the principal of a school where teachers took the time to discuss this important election with you in your classes, and I'm proud that so many of our wonderful students learned so much about the country we live in and the choices we face.

Leading up to the election, Hundreds of you have asked your teachers and adults in the building who they were planned to vote for. Today, you're asking adults who they voted for yesterday. You are excited about what is happening, and that is exciting to us.

What I would like to remind you, our young citizens, is that our democracy works--if we use it. So until you turn 18, keep on discussing the elections with adults. But when you turn 18, we hope that you continue to celebrate democracy by voting yourself.

Finally, based on the student elections we've held, and from conversations with many members of our school community, I am sure that is fitting to congratulate our new President-elect, Barack Obama and wish him a terrific presidency.

There were cheers from around the building.

Update:

Just wrapped up my weekend by commenting on 8th grade blogs. Ms. Johns had the students post Election Reflections.

If you're not sure whether the kids are jazzed up about the election, you should check out a couple of their posts:


* http://jakanko802.blogspot.com/
* http://algenis801.blogspot.com