It felt fitting to spend the Monday before the U.S. voted on potentially electing its first-ever woman president at a middle school that bears the name of the country’s most famous suffragette.
Earlier this fall, I’d signed up to volunteer at my son’s school, Susan B. Anthony Middle School in Minneapolis, as it hosted its traditional mock election, held every two years. It participates among other middle schools from around Minnesota and the United States. Afterward, social studies classes in all the schools will review the results, comparing them across rural, urban and suburban districts from Rochester to International Falls, and from Seattle to Miami.
As the election drew nearer and I wondered how to convey the depth of my thoughts and feelings around it, I couldn’t think of a better way to do so than spending the afternoon with preteens and teens learning to exercise their American right, being trained and formed in the hallowed patterns of American democracy, which owes its existence not only to judges and lawyers from elite social classes, but also to everyday Americans across the country, from every walk of life. And, in recent decades, from every gender, race and creed.
Being the mom of a middle schooler, and previously having served as a substitute teacher in P.E. for some of these students, I’d seen firsthand the chaos that sometimes results when you put a bunch of preteens and teenagers into a crowded room, particularly after lunch on a day when school is canceled the following day. So I was anticipating more than a few antics and maybe more than my share of misbehavior or disrespect.
Instead, I was struck immediately by the seriousness with which these students took their chance to cast a vote. The ballots they had were identical to the ones adults in that area would be voting with on Election Day with the exception of the page of judges. The kids filed in quietly, then told me and another parent volunteer their names, spelling them as needed. We checked them off, just as poll workers do here in Minnesota at voting sites, and then they took their ballots to private desks with cardboard dividers.
Most of the kids looked me right in the eyes when they took their ballot. The girls, especially, I noticed, tended to smile broadly.