The gourd candidates, Ovifera Peponapsis and Crescentia Alata, had their first debate on Wednesday. The students prepared questions that probed the candidates views on everything from domestic "fertilizer" production (the student reminded us that "fertilizer" really meant "oil") to affirmative action (should warty gourds receive special consideration for jobs?) to health care (several of the gourds are getting a bit mushy in the stem). Cathy, Elizabeth and I were thrilled with the sophistication of the questions and the rapt interest of the class during the debate. The last question was, I kid you not, "How do we know we can trust you?"
Many of the students were surprised at how the debate affected them. "Both of the candidates made a lot of sense. I don't know what to think now," was a common response. I felt it mirrored many voter's frustration when trying to tease out the positions of candidates.
I am playing Senator Ovi, the Free Gourd candidate, and was a bit nervous going into the debate. During our party caucus, only two students joined my table. I asked them which of the platform planks they found most convincing. They actually disagreed with much of the platform but had joined the Free Gourds because "the other tables were too crowded" and "well, I'm married to her so I figured I better vote the same way." Things weren't looking too good. Luckily, I was able to slip in a few zingers during the debate and the polls (taken just this afternoon) are showing a statistical dead heat with 30% of voters still undecided.
The other teachers were interested in joining in the gourd election and I proposed this to the class today. They were very skeptical. Most felt there was no way that the younger kids were ready to understand the issues we had been studying like health care and the taxes. Others brought up that some kids couldn't read the ballot. The concerns gave us a great opportunity to talk about ways Americans have been kept from voting in the past (poll taxes, literacy tests.) We decided to do a test poll of the 2/3s to see if they are aware enough of the issues to be ready to learn about the Poligourd and Free Gourd platforms ( Download Gourd_parties.pdf.) Others started work on a TV special about the elections. A third group began an aggressive poster campaign. Tomorrow, we'll work on presentations about the candidates and issues that we'll present to the Tamaracks (and perhaps the Maples and Pines if they're deemed ready by the polling committee).
I hope that your dinner table has been filled with some good gourd politics conversations. I'm going to be writing a press release this weekend, and welcome any comments or insights that you have.
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