Feel the Bern?
Students at Mississippi School for Math & Science certainly did Monday during the school’s mock presidential primary election.
While voters throughout the state will go to the polls today to make their choices in the real primaries, MSMS students got the jump on the grown-ups. Their choice, by an overwhelming margin, was Bernie Sanders, who collected 100 of the 176 student votes cast in the mock election, easily defeating Hillary Clinton (18) among those students who chose to vote in the Democratic primary.
On the Republican side, Marco Rubio won by a narrow margin, collecting 20 votes. Donald Trump and Ted Cruz followed closely with 18 votes each.
Students gravitated to the Democratic primary by more than a 2-to-1 margin.
It is highly unlikely that the students’ votes will bear much resemblance to the actual primary results in Mississippi — and in more ways than one.
Polls show Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are the clear favorites in today’s actual primaries. Then, there is the matter of turn-out, 77 percent among MSMS students. If the actual primaries draw half that percentage, it will be considered a good showing.
What is most interesting about the MSMS election is not the results, however.
For MSMS history teacher Julie Heintz, the real benefit of the mock election was introducing the students to our political process and helping them see the relevance of it in their own lives.
The students have been following the presidential races in class since the beginning of the semester.
“We wanted them to learn what the primaries are and how it works,” she said. “Beyond that, we wanted them to listen to the candidates and what they had to say about the issues they care about.”
Heintz grew up in Iowa. Her father was a teacher, and she grew up attending the Iowa caucuses. That exposure, she said, is an experience that most kids throughout the country do not have.
The students’ support for Sanders is understandable. Virtually all of them will soon be college-bound, and of all the candidates, it is Sanders who has spoken most consistently about the cost of a college education. He proposes college should be free. That resonated powerfully among the MSMS students, naturally.
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the MSMS election is what it says about the students themselves and how they form their views. The most important influence in how teens think is generally shaped by their parents.
But the environment at MSMS — students live on campus — fosters an atmosphere for independent thinking.
Jax Dallas, a junior from Caledonia, said he’s noticed students are far more likely to be influenced by their peers than their parents and are far more inclined to form their own opinions.
“When you’re in class, you usually just say what you think you’re supposed to say,” he said. “But after class, when we’re just hanging out, that’s when you hear what they really think.”
The influence of their teachers did not seem much of a factor, either. The MSMS faculty voted, too, and the results were far different than that of the students. Of the 22 faculty votes cast, Clinton led the way with 7, followed by John Kasich with 6 and Rubio with 4.
Dallas said he voted the way his mom will probably vote. “I’m not too sure about my dad,” he said.
Senior Latonia Parker, a senior from New Hope, will be eligible to vote in real election in November so the mock election is a primer for the real choice she’ll make then.
“I really started thinking about the things that are important to my future,” she said. “Sometimes people just vote for whoever is popular and maybe they don’t really know why they are voting for someone. But this has made me really think about it more.” The vote she cast Monday may not be the one she casts in November, she said.
“I may change my mind,” she said. “I really want to do my research. I want to feel like I’m really informed before I vote for real.”
Kids say the darndest things, huh?
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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