PLN 9: The Next Election

In Karl Fisch’s blog article, The Next Election, what matters is educating all those people who are currently in high school, who will be eligible to vote in the 2012 elections, and making sure that they know what they are voting for and about. Mr. Fisch asks three questions that I think are really good critical questions, that make us think about what we are really going to do by the time the next election rolls around, and 17.5 million more students that will be eligible to vote, whether they choose to or not. He asks:
1. What are we going to do to prepare our students to be engaged, intelligent, informed, and competent voters in a world that is very, very, very different than the one we grew up in?
2. How are we preparing them to be successful citizens in a publish-then-filter world?
3. Are we transforming our classrooms to reflect real-time, instantaneous access to factual and political information?
After taking these questions into consideration, I think that I agree with his expression of opinion about educating all high school students in the information that they will be voting on in the next four years. It is a good idea to inform students of all ages in politics and their political issues and standpoints. I know that there are those people, such as myself, who really enjoy and get into politics, and like to follow current issues, but there are also those who could care less. It is important to educate all people so that they know what they are voting for, and won’t regret their votes later.
I decided to take two different perspectives on the matter. In doing so I asked my family what they would to do educate high school students in the next election, versus what students would like to see happen. From the information I gathered, students like me would like to see technology used in more classrooms, and to learn more about political events straight from the truth, without all the bias of sides that just makes matters more complicated. We would like to be able to learn about political issues based on how they apply to us, and what will be good or bad for us and our economy.
Our parents on the other hand, have had more experience in voting, and have a better idea about the economy, so they vote more towards things that will affect the country as a whole, and the future of our tax money. They think that students should inform themselves on political matters and to branch out to their own opinions. By researching matters in their own hands, they find what they believe to be true and to personally express themselves in what they believe, whether or not their parents agree.
The first question asks what teachers and other adults are going to do to prepare students for the next election. Again I chose two different perspectives, one on what adults are going to do, and another on what students would like to see happen. Here are the results I got:
Adults and Educators: As I was talking to my parents on what they would to do educate students in political issues, they had views similar but yet opposite to what students want. They think that politics should be discussed in class, and that students should be taught how to see past political advertisement, and into what the matter is all about. In the political campaigns, we often see opposing campaigners say things like “so-and-so voted no on helping so-and-so people raise money for clean water”. What we don’t take into consideration is the reason why they voted no on certain issues. They could have voted no because part of the deal was a raise in taxes for the average man in a percentile range that is unreasonable. For all that we know, by voting no for that issue the candidate could have saved their commonwealth millions of dollars in tax money.
This is an issue that adults and educators would like to be taught to students. They think that it is important to make sure that students know what they are voting for, making them educated voters.
Students and Future Voters: From the information I got from the students around me, I found that students would like to learn by technology and their parents. Many of the people that I talked to said that they will have their parents inform them, along with interacting a discussing with the people around them. This gives students the opportunity to get multiple perspectives, just like I am doing now, and to choose what they think will be the best for them in future years. This also allows students to get an idea from adults and educators, aka experienced voters on what will be best, or what entries on the ballot are reasonable or not.
Students will also be interested in learning from technology. With the current advance at the rate of change, ballots may be able to access online by the time of the next two elections. Some students view this as a good way to learn about current politics. While others think that it should be taught based on the basic understanding of our government and how it works. The people that want technology to play a bigger part in politics in the upcoming elections are more open to change and the future. They welcome new ideas and are open to trying new things. They think that politics will be best understood in such a technology based fashion since our country is being based in a technology based fashion. The people that want to stick to the traditional fashion of teaching politics like it is, with the campaigning verbally, and choosing your own side of the views that are being presented in plain paper are the best way to learn. They think that by not changing the way politics are taught, we will learn like our parents learned, and will understand the ways that they feel about such political issues.
Just based on this first question, we can see the difference between parents point of view versus the students. The second question that was asked was “how are we preparing our students to live in a publish-then-filter world.” I again got two different viewpoints on the matter.
Adults then Educators: As I talked to adults again, I found that they felt that students should be careful in a world where anyone can post on the internet, whether factual or not. Anyone can express their opinion and their feelings on a matter, no matter what the truth may be.
Adults would like students to be able to filter what they believe, and the biases of the internet to be known as bias and not fact for fact truth. By the law of freedom of speech, it is not illegal to stretch the truth on any matter, especially in politics. Adults want students to be able to decipher the difference between fact and opinion on such matters. They want students to be careful and not to believe everything that they hear or read, because it could be false.
Students and Future Voters: After talking to new voters who will be voting in 2012, many people thought that by having the internet, they could get many different views on what other people thought on different matters. By having freedom of speech and press, and by allowing others to publish their personal opinions, students can pick and choose what they want to believe, and have their own opinions on matters that they will be voting on.
Students have the opportunity to grow up in a technological world, and be able to see many points of view on matters. They are allowed to see many different bias’ on matters that they will be having a say in, allowing them to choose for themselves on what they want to vote on, and not being forced to vote what their parents vote for.
The last question that was asked was asking about classrooms are being turned into real life situations, and more and more discussion are reflecting what’s happening in the world. Once more, I chose to take two different sides on the matter.
Adults and Educators: Adults think that by discussing politics in class is doing no harm because it is all part of education and understanding the government and how our country works. It is good to be informed and to get new ideas on what we as students can do to make our country better,
The only concern that they have is who is leading the discussion and if students are being allowed to express their opinions without feeling pressured to base an opinion one way because that’s what their teacher and classmates are for. If a student has the write to feel and express their own opinion, then the adults that I talked to are all for political discussions in class.
Students and Future Voters: From the student point of view, it is good that it is becoming easier to access real-life information and to be able to discuss it in the classroom. It gives students a chance to express themselves and personal opinions in the classrooms, allowing us to view others perspective, and to create our own opinions on matters that will soon be into our own hands. Some students enjoy talking about matters that affect our economy, and enjoy expressing their opinions in what to do with our country.
By educating students in class, teachers are preparing us for the election in 2012. We are being able to choose our bias on matters and what we think is right or wrong for our country, including the president and the majority of congress and the senate.
As you can see, there are many different points of view between educated voters, and new voters. I have found it interesting to see the comparison between parents and kids. This will prove to be a different type of election with all these new voters taking their stance on politics.