Suggestions wanted: Help develop a game for educating voters

The National Student/Parent Mock Election (NSPME) is looking for ideas for a voter education game to be launched next fall. Tentatively titled “The Road to the Capitol,” the multidisciplinary game will incorporate civics, government and history lessons along with science, math and language arts in a simulated congressional campaign requiring the “candidates” (students and parents) to become well informed about such issues as the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, landmark Supreme Court cases and famous speeches. Successful players will “win a seat in Congress.”

“Research has shown that voting attitudes are determined as early as age 7,” says NSPME president Gloria Kirshner, and “the voting habits of parents influence and are influenced by their children.”

The instructional content for all age levels will be designed to meet the state and national standards for each subject. A teacher/parent guide will accompany the game.

Students also are encouraged to take part in designing the voter education game. The U.S. Department of Education’s recently released National Education Technology Plan stressed the need for innovative new learning tools that draw on students’ experience with technology: “The technology that has so dramatically changed the world outside our schools is now changing the learning and teaching environment within them. Sometimes this is driven by the students themselves, born and comfortable in the age of the Internet.”

To contribute—or have your students contribute—to the voter education game, e-mail Gloria Kirshner at nspme@aol.com. Visit the NSPME Web site at www.nationalmockelection.org.

Parents and money are crucial to college decisions

The vast majority of today’s young adults—no matter their race or ethnicity—strongly believe in the value of higher education. That’s one of the findings of Life After High School: Young People Talk about Their Hopes and Prospects, a new national survey of 18- to 25-year-olds conducted by Public Agenda, an opinion research organization.

Most of the young adults surveyed report that their parents inspired the goal of going to college, and many had a teacher in high school who took a strong personal interest in them and encouraged them to go on to college.

However, the study raises serious questions about the shortage of high school counselors and the economic pressures and tradeoffs many young adults face—especially those from minority backgrounds.

The survey “shows that most young people have absorbed the ‘go to college, get more education’ message. We’ve been successful in inspiring a goal,” says Public Agenda president Ruth Wooden. “Whether they’re getting the nuts-and-bolts, real-life help and guidance they need to reach that goal, to actually succeed in graduating from college, is another matter.”

Across racial and ethnic lines, young Americans see going to college as a positive thing to do. Seventy-four percent of young adults agree that college “helps prepare you for the real world.” Seventy-seven percent of African-Americans, 81 percent of Hispanics, 81 percent of whites and 85 percent of Asian Americans say that “people respect you more when they know you’ve graduated from college.”

Money plays a big role in decisions about where, or whether, to go to college, according to Life After High School. Nearly half of young people who don’t continue their education after high school cite lack of money, the wish to earn money, or having other responsibilities as reasons why they don’t go. The study also found strong evidence that financial concerns are the reason some minority groups are more likely to compromise on the college they choose.

Young people across all demographic groups surveyed indicated that counseling resources were stretched thin, with 53 percent saying there were not enough counselors in their high schools.

Analysis and complete survey results are available at: www.publicagenda.org/research/pdfs/life_after_high_school.pdf.

Celebrating Emily, Langston and other American poets

This April marks the 10th celebration of National Poetry Month (NPM). Educators and schools can mark the occasion by using the free resources made available by the Academy of American Poets to expose students to poets like Emily Dickinson and Langston Hughes.

Launched by the Academy in April 1996, NPM brings together publishers, booksellers, libraries, schools and poets around the country to celebrate poetry and its vital place in American culture. Thousands of institutions and groups participate in the event each year through poetry festivals, workshops, readings and other activities.

NPM has several goals including highlighting the extraordinary legacy and ongoing achievement of our nation’s poets as well as introducing more Americans to the pleasures of reading poetry. NPM also seeks to make poetry a more important part of the school curriculum. Toward that end, the academy provides free resources (including lessons plans) for teachers, librarians and booksellers. The academy’s Web site includes a National Poetry Almanac featuring 12 monthly themes that highlight activities, ideas and history for individual or classroom use, starting with “30 Ways to Celebrate National Poetry Month” in April.

Visit www.onlinepoetryclassroom.org for lesson plans and information on other NPM activities.

You also might want to visit the Children’s Book Council Web site, www.cbcbooks.org, to learn more about Young People’s Poetry Week (April 11-17).