POW!! DEBATE!! BAM!!!
“To the Dopemobile, Robyn!”
Charlie (that’s Charles to the rest of you) brought home the “President Picker” today. It’s actually the Scholastic News, September 2004, 1st Grade edition. (NOTE: The poll on the web site is not the same as the one in the magazine.) The “ballot” has been cut out by the teacher, who I’m told will be mailing the ballots to the President this weekend.
Your son is more politically aware than I was at that age. When my first-grade class did a mock presidential election, I voted for Dukakis because I liked his tie.
During an elemetary school mock election I voted for Reagan because they had two lines, one for each guy, and the Reagan line was longer. I was, I believe, eight years old.
Twenty years later, when I tell my mother about this, she damn near goes ballistic on me. Hey…I KNOW I screwed up. It’s been a while. Deal.
Hell, he just changed MY vote! YEEEHAW! More prezzies!!
I love how you handled this. You opened a dialog, didn’t get exited at all and talked through the entire subject rationally in language a child could understand.
Exellent first steps towards an education in citizenship rather than partisianship, which the teacher was obviously trying to get across.
If it were me, and I am a right wing reactionary, I would be furious that an elementary school teacher would dare try to indoctrinate my kid, regardless if the teachers political leanings matched mine or not.
Civics, the American method of elections, importance of individule voting, all perfect good subjects. The differences between the two major parties? leave my kids out of it.
My sister (age 8) wants Kerry to win. She and her friend have both been brainwashed into being little Democrats by their families and churches. My mom took them out to dinner a while back and they (the two kids) spent the whole time talking about why they didn’t like Bush. My sister repeated some stuff I had said in her presence, so I know it’s partially my fault. 
I voted for George Wallace in my nursery school mock-election because his named sounded strong like a wall. (My original choice had been Richard Nixon because his name reminded me of kitty whiskers.) My mom was not thrilled when I told her of this and she used a lot of big words that I couldn’t understand at that age.