Madison Drummey, Charlie Bardenhauer, Andrew Hill, Leila Grant, Liam Makosky, and Hannah Taylor wait in line to cast their votes in a mock election held at the elementary school on Monday. (Photos by Lisa Aciukewicz)

Second-grade teacher Christopher Snell is proud of his students’ enthusiastic embrace of presidential politics.

“I have been pleasantly surprised at how much they know,” Snell said this week as he wrapped up a unit on the presidential election. The unit ended on Monday with a school-wide election that saw Barack Obama take 68 percent of the elementary school vote to John McCain’s 29 percent. Three percent of the vote went to write-ins, including Hillary Clinton, a student’s dad, Nigel the Duck, (a stuffed animal who lives at HES), and a toy weasel of mysterious origin who garnered two votes. Snell himself received one write-in vote.

“The little toy weasel got more votes than I did,” he acknowledged, “but I guess that’s democracy at work.”

Despite the levity injected by the duck and weasel write-ins, the second-graders tackled the unit earnestly, following a framework that Snell designed to further the school district’s renewed emphasis on critical thinking. Recognizing the role of symbolism in the campaigns was one of the unit goals. Students were asked to analyze the deeper meaning of symbol, color, and deceptively simple words used in campaign ads. An examination of the students’ own platform statements and posters suggested they had grasped some of the political machine’s advertising techniques.

A poster drawn by Gabriel Sennott depicted an action-oriented candidate who balanced on a flying helicopter, soared through the air in a super hero cape, faced down an erupting volcano, and flexed Popeye-like bicep muscles. Only one frame showed the dynamic candidate in repose, smiling and clad in a red, white, and blue suit.

“I wanted to draw a very strong person,” the 7-year-old said when asked about the poster.

For the teaching of critical thinking to have merit, Snell pointed out, pupils must have enough to think about. In the course of his unit, then, Snell did not neglect content. He taught the election process with emphasis on the Electoral College. His class played math games to show how electoral votes are tallied in each state. After the election, pupils tallied results by grouping the plastic Unifix cubes that were used as ballots into groups of 10. As for the content of the campaign, Snell focused discussion on several issues of academic merit: the war in Iraq, energy issues, and healthcare. He scrupulously avoided issues with religious overtones, he said.

Kindred Atwood, Jack Allen, and Gabriel Sennott count some of the blocks used in voting. (Photo by Lisa Aciukewicz)

“We had some guest speakers come in to talk positively about both major candidates for president. The whole point has been to give the kids pieces of information in a way that excites them about civic duty and… will have an impact on them later on in life, especially when they reach the age to be actively involved,” Snell said this week.

In a brief meeting with the Press last week, four youngsters—with loyalty divided equally between the Democratic and Republican candidates—voiced concerns about gas prices, taxation, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Though none claimed a relative or friend in service, each spoke with empathy about families who have been touched by the war, but disagreed about when American soldiers should return home. About the health of the planet, however, the students were of one mind.

“We need to plant more trees and do everything we can to stop global climate change,” declared Sage McFarland, to the agreement of classmates Antonio Bibbo, Alicia Bakis, and Alice Pope.

“We should stop cutting down trees to make things we don’t need,” added Alice. Pollution is another problem to be addressed, argued Alicia.

Above all, the group agreed that friendship must trump politics.

“I am still friends with people who won’t vote for him,” declared Antonio, pointing to his cardboard campaign button. His classmates smiled at each other, nodding in agreement, looking down at their own homemade campaign buttons.