Today is Election Day in the US and you can’t ignore the elephants and donkeys in the room! I’m posting this thread in response to an observation made by John Palfrey, current head of Andover, which was shared at a program held during Andover’s Parents Weekend. His observation is that there are hardly any current students who openly aspire to hold public office which is a big change from just a few years ago. Historically schools like Andover produced many graduates who aspired to hold public office. He continued to say that it’s not that students are not politically engaged, in fact with the rise of social media the students are much more aware and concerned about politics than ever before, but they are choosing to be involved in different ways. It seems to me that the boarding school experience would be a real plus for would-be politicians in that boarding school communities are more cosmopolitan than local schools and offer students exposure to a diversity of perspectives to help hone what a student believes is important for a community to thrive. Plus these kids possibly develop broader networks for future support than do kids who go to school locally, at least for national-level office. My own kid has never mentioned going into politics, and I’ve never thought before to ask, but I’m thinking that this will be a good and timely topic for our family to discuss over Thanksgiving break.
I am reluctant to say too much but I think that many professions that used to be very standard for graduates of these elite schools included physician, attorney,scientist and professor as well as captain of industry and government. Now it is hedge fund manager, venture capitalist and so forth. Seems to be predominantly about money.
I think it is tragic. Further, most highly educated young people that are not liberal are more libertarian. The extremes of the two parties have disenfranchised many. There is no real viable middle any more.
Fewer kids aspire to those roles today. But if Andover wanted to regain their own historic role in preparing the next generation of civic leaders, you’d think they could do it by looking for those interests in the admissions pool and adding curricular and co-curricular offerings to spark and nurture that flame.
SPS has introduced a Practical Politics elective. I don’t have detailed info about the syllabus, but it appears to be very applied in nature and include a lot of field work (either party) and experiences with different branches of government. Of course, it helps that Concord, NH is the state capital, offering opportunities for hands-on training outside of classroom settings. A friend’s child is taking Practical Politics now; I’ll inquire.
Mercersburg brought in a documentary filmmaker with extensive experience and knowledge about past elections to help students analyze and process the Presidential election. (My daughter said he was the most interesting person she ever met.) Before the election, students held an issues forum. I know my kids were at a teacher’s house for at least one debate, and election returns were watched communally in the dorms. I would be interested to know how other schools engage students politically. Incidentally, I would say that a good representative of a Mercersburg alum in public service is the Pennsylvania federal judge who ruled that teaching “intelligent design” is unconstitutional and who struck down PA’s same-sex marriage ban. He seems very Mercersburgian in that he is a Republican whose decisions upheld science and fairness.
Here is some info on the Practical Politics class at SPS:
http://www.sps.edu/page/News-Detail?pk=889484&fromId=189009
@GoatMama I love that class!
@CaliMex You’re right, if the school has an interest in promoting civic engagement, programs need to be offered. It’s not enough to say “wouldn’t it be great…”.
I’ll need to dig a little more to see what’s offered formally at PA, if anything. Like Mercersburg, kids did gather for the debates and to watch results come in.
Also: They could draw from their admissions pool with that in mind: Look for kids who have already volunteered on political campaigns, participated in Debate clubs, written blogs on politics, etc.
Another good point @CaliMex
I have been hearing from daughter that there were a lot of informal evening debates among students, some are heated, in addition to faculty led discussions and debates.
Mrs. Carter, who teaches Practical Politics at SPS, gave the Winter Convocation address yesterday. You can learn a lot about that class – and SPS in general – from her address: http://www.sps.edu/page/news-detail?pk=895894&fromId=189009. My favorite sticky note on that empty wall next to President Obama’s portrait? “I hope Ruth Bader Ginsburg lives forever!”
NMH has held a nation wide mock presidential election for high schools (1 or more in every state) for the past 28 years which is now live streamed. Here is a link in case other schools want to join (but I guess you will have to wait 4 years) http://www.nmhschool.org/academics/votes-2016-project/votes-2016