GREENFIELD — They’re not even close to the legal voting age, but that didn’t stop students at the Discovery School at Four Corners from casting ballots for their preferred presidential candidate Monday.
They won’t count for the real elections today, of course, but the students handily elected Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton with 170 votes.
Republican nominee Donald Trump came in second with 27 votes, while Green Party candidate Jill Stein garned 17 and Libertarian Gary Johnson took last with 15.
After slipping her selection into a cardboard ballot box made by the school’s third-grade class, kindergartener Karli Zera affixed a small sticker to her shirt that read “I voted,” signaling that she’d done her civic duty while teacher Corrie Sirum helped one of her classmates circle her own choice at a nearby makeshift polling booth.
Sirum said the mock poll grew out of the third grade’s work over the past few weeks learning about the election process, the presidency and other cornerstones of American civics.
“We’ve been using a Scholastic News (magazine) all week to learn about elections, and we wanted to do a voting simulation,” Sirum said.
She said the curriculum was designed to teach the students about the presidential candidates in a non-biased, objective way and to show them that voting and not being judged for your choice is part of having freedom in America.
“It’s great to have that real life experience and that involvement in our community,” Sirum said. “It’s going to be their world soon.”
Principal Jake Toomey said the mock vote was organized in just a few days after all the other third-grade teachers supported the idea during a meeting.
He said such events are a great way to merge what students learn in the classroom with real life experience — a way to connect the vocabulary and concepts they’re learning to the act of voting.
“They’re seeing it, they’re hearing about it already,” Toomey said of the national election. “It’s about embracing community at many levels — we have this national, state, local, town and school community — and how it coincides. It’s a great way to break it down for elementary school kids.”
Toomey said the school’s instruction hasn’t focused on the individual candidates during this election cycle as much as the ideas or philosophies they support.
“We’re trying to really boil it down, objectively. But we’ve been barraged by all sorts of questions, like, ‘Why does so-and-so want a wall? Why can’t I be president?” he laughed. “Only things kids could think of. The teachers have done really well.”
You can reach Tom Relihan at: 413-772-0261, ext. 264 or trelihan@recorder.com
On Twitter, @RecorderTom