When I look back on my days in school (K-12) and recollect the moments I remember most, at the top of that list would be the mock presidential election we did in my Social Science class in 9th grade. Everything was made to function as close to a real election as possible. We had 3 candidates who each had a campaign manager, the rest of the class was divided into special interest groups that focused on the 5 areas we as a class determined were the most pressing issues at the time, each candidate had to try and get money from the special interest groups to buy advertising time and when it came down to election day, everyone drew a different state out of a hat and we did it electorally (I think I had PA).My role was that of a campaign manager and despite the fact that the other two candidates were more popular in the junior high sense of things, my candidate and I worked hard and won the election. This was one of the best experiences I had as a teenager and it motivated me to pursue a real job as a campaign manager (until I was disillusioned by the 2000 election and decided to focus my energy on something that rarely let me down, movies).

Beyond an understanding of how elections work, this experience was also a great way to learn about how people work and to gain skills that are useful across the board, like the art of persuasion, managing money, teamwork etc.. Unfortunately, chances are somewhat high that if I was a 9th grade student today, I wouldn’t have been able to participate in that amazing experience. Why? Because since No Child Left Behind, many schools have squeezed Social Studies classes out of their curriculums to focus on subjects that relate more to testing:

Surveys have reported reduced instructional time in various states, and organizations such as the National Council for the Social Studies have responded with letters and statements to Congress. Social studies educators have begun to lobby their lawmakers. But the apparent mainstream acceptance of drastic reductions in the amount of time and attention given to one of elementary education’s core academic subjects is shocking. We are in danger of losing a generation of citizens schooled in the foundations of democracy”and of producing high school graduates who are not broadly educated human beings.In my own state of California, where history/social studies is not tested until 8th grade, this trend began with the state’s Public Schools Accountability Act of 1999, and has accelerated with the No Child Left Behind law. The social studies squeeze occurs disproportionately in low-performing schools with large minority and low-income populations that are under intense pressure to raise scores. And this, too, has alarming implications for educational opportunity and civic participation. [Education Week]

Discouraging civic participation among minorities and low income populations is nothing new, just ask Katy Chevigny, director of Election Day, a documentary that looks at many different communities on election day in 2004: