Playing politics

S. Callaway students hone understanding of U.S. goverment by organizing new political parties, drafting platforms

Heather Fees, right, and Jeremy Gerling, second from right, ask students questions about the decisions they’ve made as a political party and how they came to their conclusions Friday during an exhibit at South Callaway Middle School. Tanner Vaughan, left, Raife Evans, second from left, and Amber Egly formed the Wolf Party whose slogan was “We bite, we fight, we work for your rights.”
Heather Fees, right, and Jeremy Gerling, second from right, ask students questions about the decisions they’ve made as a political party and how they came to their conclusions Friday during an exhibit at South Callaway Middle School. Tanner Vaughan, left, Raife Evans, second from left, and Amber Egly formed the Wolf Party whose slogan was “We bite, we fight, we work for your rights.”

MOKANE — Seventh-grade students at South Callaway Middle School sought to understand the role of the U.S. government by creating their own political parties and platforms.

Many of the groups had common themes, like how to handle terrorism, abortion, education or marriage equality, but they each took a slightly difference stance. And, like many politicians within their party, they had varying opinions on controversial topics.

It’s the second year teacher Chad Hecktor has used the project in his class after teaching a unit on U.S. government history. Students create their own party names, pick platforms, endorse a presidential candidate and then answer questions and win votes from the public during an open forum.

“It’s very hands on,” Hecktor said. “I’ve done in the past where they read a chapter and take a test, but this is more engaging. They basically have a three-week discussion about their political beliefs and then there’s the community aspect. I hope they’re learning based on interactions from the community. I told them they’d be challenged by people with other strong beliefs and that’s life. I want them to learn that.”

The overall questions of the lesson is, “What should be the role of government?” and many students approached that question with how the government regulates people’s choices with issues like abortion, marriage or immigration.

Seventh grade is the point where students start to develop their own political values and either follow in their parents’ footsteps or diverge, Hecktor said.

Sierra Merritt was among those who didn’t think she had political preferences until her class started having presidential and political debates. She is part of the Equality Party, which stands on tolerance as the foundation for its political views.

The party tackled current topics, including marriage equality, education, immigration and abortion.

The Equality Party believes same-sex marriage should be legal nationwide, but churches should not be legally obligated to marry a same-sex couple. It thinks abortions should be legal, but only during the first six weeks of the pregnancy. After the six-week threshold, Merritt said, abortions can cause health problems for the woman.

The party also has a more lax policy on immigration, citing America as a melting pot full of immigrants.

“Donald Trump wants to build a wall,” Merritt said, shaking her head. “This is personal and impersonal to me. It’s personal because I have a grandfather who immigrated from Mexico, and I wouldn’t be here without him. Building a wall won’t stop illegal immigrants. We just want to tighten security and make sure we try and limit the number of illegal immigrants.”

Several of her classmates have opposing viewpoints, she said, but she’s stood by her beliefs and said she wasn’t going to change them just because people disagreed.

“I’ve had some people come by, parents mostly, who don’t agree with the topics and walk off,” she said. “But if they had stopped and listened maybe they would understand.”

The Chieftains had some liberal and conservative viewpoints and picked their party name because “they want the party to lead the country like the Native American chiefs lead their tribes.” The group believes the native chiefs showed leadership, took charge with situations and made allies — characteristics they believe politicians should exemplify, said group member Kasey Dunnavant.

The group took on gun rights, terrorism, education and preserving the environment and Native American sites as some of their platforms.

“We believe we should be able to have guns because of the Second Amendment, which is the right to bear arms,” Dunnavant said. “But we should have background checks. People think if guns aren’t allowed then less people will get hurt. But people could still get guns.”

Dunnavant said they chose terrorism because it’s been prevalent in the news lately with recent attacks. While they didn’t agree with building a wall between the U.S. border and Mexico like Trump suggested, they thought there should be increased security.

Education was a topic they had a more liberal stance on. In order to provide better access to education, the Chieftains propose increasing taxes on the upper class to fund scholarships and financial aid.

Bernie Sanders was their presidential candidate of choice because they said he is trustworthy and an experienced politician.

Just like all politicians, even those in the same party, they found themselves debating which issues should be their focal points. Dunnavant said she supports same-sex marriage, but her group counterparts didn’t. Instead of having a divided stance, they decided to take it off the table as a platform.

The students agreed that the project-based learning approach to the lesson was more interesting, and it stirred up several class debates.