I’ve been teaching my students about the French Revolution…. Absolute monarchy, an attempt at democracy, radical leadership, dictator, and ending with a limited constitutional monarchy. One of my students said that “she didn’t get it” and I asked “what don’t you get” and she says “what’s the difference between democrat and republican?” (By the way… I have no idea were this question came from… I was explaining the use of the guillotine… ironic?) I explained the whole “in general” one is conservative and the other liberal… I then realized she didn’t understand what that meant either. So I gave an example using an issue the two sides disagree on.
So the next day I got a set of laptops in my classroom for my students. I let them use this website with a candidate calculator to read about major issues that presidential candidates are dealing with. They were able to read pro’s and con’s about the issue and decide if they were for or against it. When you submit your answers to the survey it gives you results of which presidential candidate your most align with.
There were a lot of Huckabee’s which meant the kids were putting against abortion, probably against the war, and yes to the “fair tax”.
Some of my African American students were very disappointed when they got Hilary and went back to do the survey over and over until they got Obama. They were proud when they got Obama. I thought it was cute of them.
This was a great learning tool for my students. It sparked interesting conversations…. Some said they were going to show it to their parents. I was like great…. I am all for educated voters!!
So, you should give it a try… Candidate Calculator.
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