A frightening trend to come?

[alwynsw]

http://www.newsenterpriseonline.com/articles/2004/10/29/news/news2.txt

Woodlawn students leave Kerry behind in mock election

<snip>According to poll results of students in grades K-12 posted on the Weekly Reader Web site, 65 percent of third, fourth and fifth graders chose Bush. Weekly Reader students in grades 1-12 have correctly picked the president since 1956, according to the Web site.

Here's the Weekly reader link:

http://www.weeklyreader.com/election_vote.asp

<snip>The students who read Weekly Reader’s magazines have made their preference for President known: they want to send President Bush back to the White House.

The results of this year’s Weekly Reader poll have just been announced, and the winner is President Bush. Hundreds of thousands of students participated, giving the Republican President more than 60% of the votes cast and making him a decisive choice over Democratic Senator John Kerry.


It looks as though we have our work cut out for us in the coming years.

[KingChicken]

1. Bush is like a child himself

Of course they would vote for Bush, they see eye to eye, Bush is what, like 3rd grade reading level?

[NYCGirl]

2. Nickelodeon also did a mock election, and the kids chose Kerry!

So I guess the cooler kids are Democrats!

http://www.nick.com/all_nick/specials/kidsPickThePresident/results.jhtml

[bookman]

3. Middle Class and poor School Districts...

..can't afford Weekly Reader. I taught in middle class districts that removed it from the budget years ago. Hence only "rich" students got to vote.

[LisaLynne]

4. That's it, isn't it.

Good point. They're just listening to their affluent parents at the moment.

[alwynsw]

5. I agree in part, but

The article is from my local paper. It's in the dead center of a lower to middle class rural area. That's what got my attention. Of 22 schools in the county, only 3 can possibly be deemed middle to upper middle class schools. The rest are mostly kids lower economic class to lower middle class families. My wife retired from the local school system where she taught for 25 years.

[alonso_quijano]

6. Yeah, in 1976 (3rd grade) I remember choosing Ford

Which had nothing to do with my parents (who supported Ford); I remember asking them after I had 'voted.' And it sure as hell had nothing to do with or politics or policy.

I liked Ford 'cause I was freakin' eight years old and choosing pretty much at random. Means nothing for the future.

(I still like and respect Ford, actually. I wonder how many Republicans would have the decency to say that about Carter...)

[BushRel4Kerry JH]

7. In 1960, I was for Nixon

I was six years old. I marched up and down our block chanting, "Nixon, Nixon, he's our man! Kennedy belongs in the garbage can!"

Four years later, I was ten. It was 1964, Goldwater against Johnson. I became a Democrat that year and never looked back.

Both times, I was influenced by my parents, but in 1964, I actually knew a little something that helped me affirm their opinions. By 1968, I was in ninth grade and working on Humphrey's campaign. The rest is history.

Kids do reflect their parents . . . and their teachers.

Jeanny
http://www.bushrelativesforkerry.com

[newyawker99]

21. Hi BushRel4Kerry JH!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[alwynsw]

8. A few replies, but I've seen enough to be concerned.

We can dismiss this and rationalize it away all we want. The fact of the matter is that manny of these kids will continue to lean toards the results of this mock election for years to come. Don't look now, but roughly on third of them will be eligible to vote in 2008.

By any measure, 20% is a hefty margin. The point is simple. We have to work now, especially on the high-school age kids if we want to continue to hold the White House after 2008. I firmly believe that we'll own it after next week, but we need to hold onto it. The same goes for Senate and House seats.

Rationalizing this away as only reflecting rich kids, privelidged kids, childlike identification, or something else can only lead to a complacency that will make it harder in years to come to get our candidates elected. How much will a farmer harvest if he tends well to only planting and harvest times without nurturing his crops between those times? It's an appropriate analogy.

I hate to use a biblical quote here, but as the old saw goes, "Train up a child in the way he should go..." How appropriate it is to this issue.

[fob]

9. Is there any way to get a list of stories covered in WR over the last

4 years? Any politickin' goin' on?

[alwynsw]

10. I don't know. I'll try a serach.

[prayin4rain]

11. Here is how the weekly reader describes the difference between

democrats and republicans



Dear Professor Paul E. Tics,

What is the difference between a Republican and a Democrat?

Connor

Dear Connor,

That's an excellent question Connor. In fact, a lot of your friends have asked me the same thing.

Let's talk first about what political parties are. Political parties are now the dominant institutions in American politics. Those who belong to a political party generally agree on what that party stands for.

But did you know the U.S. Constitution doesn't mention political parties? In fact, George Washington believed that political parties would damage the new nation by dividing the country.

The modern Republican Party arose in 1854 over the issue of slavery. Republicans did not believe in slavery. Abraham Lincoln, elected in 1860, became the first Republican president. Several Southern states could not accept his views opposing slavery, and split from the Union.

The Republican Party has gone through a lot of changes over the years. Today, most Republicans are labeled as conservatives on fiscal and social issues. They tend to believe people in the community can solve problems better than the government can.

Like the Republicans, the Democratic Party has also gone through many changes. Thomas Jefferson founded the Democratic Party in 1792. The party was actually called the Democratic-Republicans. The two groups split during the administration of Andrew Jackson (1829-1837), becoming the Democratic Party and the National Republican Party, which later became the Whig Party.

Today, Democrats tend to believe that government should help the less fortunate. They tend to be more liberal on social issues.

http://www.weeklyreader.com/election/professor03.asp

[fob]

12. Thank you. That's all the disinformation I need to know about that

POS rag. Professor Paul E Tics can kiss my ass.

[prayin4rain]

15. I know, it is really sad that this kind of stuff goes on.

Man people have no shame. Trying to answer a little kids honest question with a slimy calculated response. They can't stop being disgusting for a second.

[alwynsw]

19. I agree.

although it would help the party, politics should be handled very carefully in the classroom. My wife tried to find the perfect balance during her entire teaching career and failed. It's a damned if you do or damend if you don't conundrum for most teachers we know. Some are left, some are right, but none we know try to influence the kids either way. Personally, I think that's the proper thing to do: if asked, answer the question as honestly and evenly as possible. Teachers' personal political beliefs have no place in the classroom. That includes those beliefs being promoted by proxy from an outside source.

[alwynsw]

18. It's not incorrect

It just slants to the right. We know which way the godd professor leans.

[fob]

23. It may have some historical information but the way it's composed is BS

The set up of the original repub party as against slavery and without a word that is brought up to date with, today repubs are socially conservative?

What is the target age group here? Using Liberal and Conservative is a bit seemy, IMO. Especially when it is used to gloss over the original repubs became Dems and the modern day pubs are the dixiecrats of old.

In short, it gives an overall glossy feelgood spin to pukes and a pasteover to Dems and in the end provides no real answer at all.

I'm not saying it's an easy task to explain but THAT performance blew chunks!

[UdoKier]

13. I believe Weekly Reader kids overwhelmingly picked Bush I in 1992.

They have been wrong before.

[Zing Zing Zingbah]

14. Kids will vote for Bush just to fit in with the rich and/or popular kids.

Many kids this age are not capable of making an informed and independent decision when it comes to politics. Many kids are like this even in high school. Their attitudes will change once they are faced with being an adult in the the real world.

[Sinnerman]

16. I heard they just found book that was distributed in

Pennsylvania to all Wardens in State & Federal Prisons get applications to all inmates and have vote for Kerry.

Awesome Idea we should do that nation wide

[alwynsw]

17. Try again. A little urban rumor action, I think.

Convicted felons do not have voting rights unless they are restored by either the governor of the state or via either a Presidential or Gubenatorial pardon.

Aside from that: we all want to win, but coersion is NOT an acceptable tactic. That idea takes us right back to the old south with white hoods at the polls. In short: an unworkable, illegal, shitty idea.

[obreaslan]

20. I wouldn't worry about this...

Ask the average 8 year old who they would vote for for president, give him two choices, current president GWB and current senator (probably not from their state) Kerry, and who do you think they will pick. GWB, because they know who he is. Sadly, a lot of adults vote this same way.

Plus, don't worry about this mis-informed kids when they reach voting age. If GWB has his way, most will be drafted and lost in battle by the time they would get around to voting anyway.

[Taxloss]

22. Another factor could be that kids scare easily.

I remember having nightmares about nuclear war around the time of Afghanistan and so on, and the Bush campaign has focused a lot on fear.

Don't worry. Younger demographics are ROCK SOLID on the environment. That's a huge cause for hope. My schooling was based on fears about acid rain, radiation/nuclear power and air quality; no such thing as global warming then, and the ozone hole was only beginning to appear. But my generation cited the environment as a key concern, and we carried that through into later life. Today's kids make my generation look like the Exxon board of directors.