Boulder Country Day School teaches democracy despite a negative election

Third grade students at Boulder Country Day School are stepping forward as champions of positive school climate by running a school-wide election with respect and enthusiasm. The candidates are two guinea pigs.

Before you dismiss this exercise as silly, think of how much students can learn. From creating posters, t-shirts, promotional videos, voter registration booths, polling centers, and all kinds of other initiatives critical to the electoral process to ensuring that only registered voters get to place a vote, these students are experiencing electoral politics and campaigning at its best.

And it goes beyond the classroom. Students have written speeches for the candidates and are visiting each grade to educate the other students about the process as well as the candidates, encouraging questions and curiosities, and advocating for participation regardless of age or viewpoints of the prospective voters. Creating an environment where positivity is the norm rather than the exception, being inclusive rather than exclusive, and coming together instead of separating themselves into camps behind walls of rhetoric, these students are setting an example for their schoolmates, their community and beyond.