Schools embrace Election Day lessons, while 12th graders head to the polls for real

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.  

Law then provides a “first-time voter” sign for students to take a picture with before she takes them to lunch and Starbucks after their trip.  

She said she wants to make Election Day special because “if you can keep these traditions going, then you're always going to be engaged. You're always going to be informed and let your voice be heard.”  

An analysis from Tufts University found 41 million Gen Z Americans will be able to vote in the election between former President Trump and Vice President Harris, with estimates that more than 8 million of them are first-time voters.  

Larger schools can't always be quite as hands-on, but they, too, are embracing the democratic spirit.

“We don't have any really big, specific plans for Election Day. The vast majority of our students are under 18, so we're not going to let a lot of people go, like as a big release event. But what we have done is start back before the primary season, back in the winter time, we had some school-wide voter registration drives,” said Matt Haney, principal of Mount Desert Island High School.

Haney's school also offered a special one-quarter Election Year course this year, which he said covered "not just the presidential election, but state politics, local ones and some of the congressional pieces."

“But we also, as a school, try to spend a lot of time talking about civil discourse and how we go about agreeing and disagreeing,” he added. 

Erin Hollis, an 18-year-old at Mount Desert Island, said she plans on voting after the school day is over on Tuesday.  

“This is my first time voting. I turned 18 in September. [...] I'm looking forward to it. I'm definitely, you know, because I get to vote this year, I've been a lot more active in learning about this election,” said Hollis, who has taken her school’s AP U.S. History course and is currently in its AP Government and Politics. 

A group of 17-year-old students from Mount Desert Island spoke to The Hill about their experience talking about political subjects in class, emphasizing the tension of discussing politics in the current climate but also speaking highly of the environment the school created to disagree with other students and teachers respectfully.  

“I think a lot of people became, at least our age, became very politically active after the 2016 election, when we were in fourth grade. So I think we really became very politically conscious about the candidates, and specifically about the candidates this year, a lot earlier than I think a lot of kids typically would, or maybe typically should. But I've definitely noticed that most kids in the school come into classes with, like, a very fixed opinion on, like, who they would vote for, who they are voting for, and they definitely talk about it — like I've never had a teacher like stop us from sharing our political views,” said Cecilia Blackett.  

The students praised their teachers for how they handle controversial topics in class and “teaching us the language that we can use, and not just like how to just throw our opinions out, but how to really have an educated opinion,” Blackett said.  

And those teachings can have an impact at home as well as in the classroom.  

“I also grew up in a very political household," said Mahala Cooper, another 17-year-old student. "My mom and dad are very strong about their political views, and during quarantine, all of us would have a lot of arguments about like Trump and stuff like that. And I guess having those conversations with my parents just really grew our relationship over time, because we did disagree a lot, but now, over time, we respect each other a lot more and our views and since I'm more educated, I can understand what different views they have and policies they believe in."

A recent ABC News/Ipsos poll found Harris leads Trump by 14 points among young voters, with broader national and swing-state polls showing the two candidates essentially tied.

Shelagh McLoughlin, a social studies teacher at Mount Desert Island, will be taking classes to the polls so students can see what the process is like, regardless of if they are old enough to vote this year.  

“I'm excited about it. It's one of my favorite trips to bring students on because it's like that eye-opening moment that they're looking around with, you know, big eyes,” McLoughlin said.  

And students say they're grateful for all the opportunities to learn about the election this year. 

“I think we're really lucky at this school that we get a place to talk about politics,” said senior Olivia Mitchell.  

"Because I've always kind of felt the same way about political stuff, but now I really feel like I'm educated more on how the system works and how voting works. I didn't really know much about that before this year,” she added. 

Even for students that are nowhere near the age to vote, schools are ensuring they get a taste of what it will be like one day to participate in the political system.  

Kristy Zaleta, the principal of Rogers Park Middle School in Connecticut, said her faculty held a mock election with their 900 students, giving kids as close to a real-life experience as they could manage by setting up polling stations in classrooms.  

To go into the “polling station” the students “had, like, a pretend security guard to make sure that they were not, you know, hassling people standing in line. They were waiting in line. They came in. They went with their registration card that they were given. They went up to the polling station, so that we had kids working there, looking for their names. They highlighted their names, or they cross them off that they had voted. They took little ticket they had, and they sent them to the next station where they were voting and they were given a sticker,” Zaleta said.  

Harris won the middle school's vote 53 percent to 47 percent.  

Zaleta emphasized the need for keeping discussions civil.  

“We want to teach people how to disagree agreeably, and so it's OK if you and I have a different thought about a policy or a different opinion about a topic. We have to respect each other's opinions,” she said.  

“I think it's to the credit of the teachers who have been really mindful about making sure that all voices are heard and that it's OK to disagree, but we do it in an agreeable way.” she added.