THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 20, 1996 TAG: 9610180225
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 22 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BARBARA WOERNER, CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: 87 lines
Presidential candidates Bill Clinton and Bob Dole are hot topics of conversation these days in Jackie Garrison's second-grade class at Red Mill Elementary School.
Joseph Liverman and Matthew Jackson, both students of Garrison quickly volunteered their knowledge of President Clinton's candidacy during a recent lesson - one of a series geared to helping inform the second-grade class on the basics of campaigning, voting and other aspects of the electoral process.
``Bill Clinton wants to run with Al Gore just like the last time,'' said Matthew. ``And he has to be at least 35 years old to run for president.''
``He flies in a helicopter to different states and talks to a lot of people to try to get them to vote for him,'' said Joseph.
Other students eagerly waved their hands waiting to voice their knowledge concerning candidates Bob Dole and Ross Perot. Among the posters that decorate the room naming the days of the week or showing the life cycle of a frog, are election posters and materials. For the past few weeks, the class has been voting on everything from what time to take recess to selecting videos.
On this day, Garrison moved the class on to the hands-on part of the lesson. ``Today, we're getting to know the cooperative aspect of government by doing exercises that cause the students to work together,'' she said as students paired off and began twisting pipe cleaners together. ``We hope that the simple exercises that we do in class will help them understand how the government cooperates.''
``We've also talked a lot about the men that are running for president and vice president and next week, we will actually register to vote.''
Garrison's class at Red Mill Elementary is taking part in Kids Voting Virginia, a part of Kids Voting USA, a nonprofit and nonpartisan voter education organization focusing on grass-roots involvement to help turn students into informed future voters while simultaneously increasing adult voter turnout.
``We hope to help re-energize the normal civics curriculum,'' said Angelica Light, executive director of Kids Voting Virginia. ``We've provided the curriculum to participating schools, which includes a lot of hands-on activities to help teach the voting process.''
Kids Voting USA was born in 1988 in Phoenix, Ariz., after local businessmen Bob Evans, Max Jennings and Chuck Wahlheim went fishing in Costa Rica. They were astonished to learn that 90 percent of the population shows up at the polls when election time rolls around. The tradition of children accompanying their parents to the polls seemed to be credited as the cause of the high voter participation in Costa Rica.
The organization has grown from working with 30,000 students in the Phoenix area to 5 million in 40 states. In South Hampton Roads, all Norfolk schools and five Virginia Beach public schools - Red Mill, Princess Anne and Ocean Lakes elementaries, and Princess Anne Middle and Ocean Lakes High - are utilizing the Kids Voting curriculum. The highlight of all this will come Nov. 5 when students will accompany their parents to the polls and cast their own ballots. Kids Voting Virginia will tabulate the results and report it to media outlets.
``In Virginia Beach, Kids Voting will only be involved at the precincts in the Ocean Lakes Vicinity,'' said Light. ``We're very pleased with the volunteer commitment we've gotten from schools and community groups.''
Light hopes to spread Kids Voting Virginia into the rest of Hampton Roads as funding is secured. This year's project was financed by a grant from Landmark Communications. She is currently on the hunt for next year's financial support.
Meanwhile, in Brooke Sellers' first-grade class at Red Mill Elementary, Meghan Ryan, Jayme Payne, Hunter Ertel and Danny Burky glued white and red paper hands they had made to a huge American flag. The class is currently preparing to put on a Kids Voting program complete with patriotic songs, including one that they do in sign language, for their parents.
Outside the school, a mock demonstration was staged by the fifth-grade social studies classes. Students carried signs they created urging passersby to vote.
``We're following the Kids Voting curriculum one lesson a week until the election,'' said Lisa Worley, social studies teacher. ``I try to encourage them, even in the SCA elections, to vote for the person that they feel will do the best job.''
``They've taken a genuine interest in all this, and they're starting to see that it's not a popularity contest,'' she added. ILLUSTRATION: Photos by BARBARA WOERNER
ABOVE: Second-graders Hillary Feldman and Loren Billings bend pipe
cleaners, an exercise to show how government cooperates.
LEFT: Fifth-grader Chris Prewitt participates in Red Mill's
get-out-the-vote demonstration.
KEYWORDS: EDUCATION by CNB