( The Hill ) — Students around the country are getting mock elections, nine-week campaign courses and field trips to the polls, where many high school seniors will vote for their first time on Tuesday.
Principals and teachers find election years are a great opportunity to educate students about the importance of their civic duty and how to have meaningful discussions with those who disagree with them.
Katie Law, principal of Arapahoe Charter High School, a small Wyoming school of only 50 students that primarily serves Tribal communities, is looking forward to taking her six 18-year-olds to the polls on Tuesday during the school day.
“We have a polling place here on campus, actually, so we might stop there first, where it’s a little quieter so they can fill out their forms without stressing out too much about it. But then I’ll take them to other polling places around the county to just kind of people-watch and see,” Law said.
“I try to get ahead of them a little bit so I can tell some of the other people that I see, ‘Hey, I got some first-time voters.’ And so when the kids come in and they get, like, that excitement from other people that are there voting like, ‘Congratulations on your first time voting,’” she added.