USA! USA! USA!

The American election deadline is almost upon us. What better way to celebrate this than to hold our very own Kalajoen lukio presidential election? That’s exactly what we did in International Studies today...

Firstly, we examined a brief history of how the Democratic and Republican parties came to exist. Afterwards, we explored what they look like today. The students also had the opportunity to guess which policies belonged to Hillary Clinton and which belonged to Donald Trump...

It was soon election time! The students were tasked with having to create their own political party in a bid to win the 2016 Kalajoen Lukio Presidential Election.

The class was given the following instructions:

1. Your team must decide upon a party name.
2. You must choose presidential and vice-presidential candidates.
3. You must create a list of policies that you would introduce to the school if you win.
4. You must make a one-minute speech giving information on these policies and explaining why YOU should win!
5. The presidential and vice presidential candidates must give the speech.

In turn, we had the Hillaryus Party (who promised to bring laughter to the school), the Best Party (straight to the point with the name), and the YAAASSSS Party (very positive).

After providing their speeches and outlining their policies (which included later starts to the school day, more colour in the classrooms, and cake on Friday) it was time to vote for the best candidates. Unlike real American potential presidents, the teams were not allowed to vote for themselves.

And the winner was... the YAAASSSS Party!

However, I pointed out to the students that if this was a real American election their own votes wouldn’t directly name the winner. Instead, they would have to go through the Electoral College. Once the system was explained this caused some pretty heated responses.  One of the students exclaimed, “It seems so pointless!” while another simply asked, “Why?”

This question was an interesting and important one. I think that it’s very easy to get caught up in explaining the “how” of something that we often forget to question the “why”? I frowned... Why exactly was this particular system in place? With some research, we soon discovered that it was there because it provides a middle ground between Congress and the public.

To conclude, we considered why the current USA election is a global issue and how it affects us. One of the students noted that the USA is a huge world power while another grieved, “It’s going to be the end of the world!” Whichever way you look at it, this election sure has fueled some strong emotional responses.