Elections are influential times that are important for people of all ages to participate in. Whether it is going out and voting, or accompanying parents to the polls, going to school on Election Day can prevent people from fulfilling their sacred obligation to the nation.While some schools have off for the election because they are polling sites, many do not, and Plain Local is no exception.
School can make it harder for student-aged-voters to be able to find time to go to the polls, and can also prevent younger students from being able to use the election as a learning experience. School being in session on Election Day prevents mass amounts of learning about public well-being and civic engagement, and therefore Plain Local should make attendance optional for students, or just call it off completely.
Going to the polls with parents can build fundamental ideas on how important civic engagement such as voting is. According to The Oxford Academic, parents have a large impact on their child’s civic engagement, and a primary way is through direct social involvement. This means that if parents do not take an active role in teaching their children about voting, there is a higher chance the child will not vote in the future.
Kelly Siegel-Stechler, a professor at John Hopkins University, also writes that parental encouragement to vote leads​ to 30% increase in young voter turnout. This also means that the reverse is true: children and teenagers who don’t grow up in an environment that supports voting will not have as high of voter turnout.
In fact, even Girl Scouts of America has released articles on the importance of taking children with parents to vote. They wrote that since current elections will be shaping young people’s futures, it is important to make sure people of all ages are aware of their civic responsibilities.
Having school completely called off may seem a little unrealistic, especially this close to the election. There are several ways to combat this, however, one of which being making attendance not mandatory if a parent calls you off. Currently, college trips and field trips do not count towards absences, and if Plain Local made it so that the same thing applied to Election Day, it could prevent a rush for childcare, while still encouraging high school voters to vote and parents to take their children to the polls.
In a study by the Washington Post, from 2018-2020, an average high school student spends 2.7 hours a day on homework. This, combined with the fact that a large portion of high school students participate in extracurricular activities, means that many teenagers have little to no free time. The little time seniors have is often spent relaxing, which means the time it takes to fill out a ballot or go to the polls is very little.
If students who are able to vote do not need to go to school on Election Day, it can inspire them to go out and vote in the coming elections. This, however, means nothing if they weren’t raised to learn how important voting and civic duties are.
Schools can not just teach about voting in classes, they have to actively encourage participation. What better way to encourage going to the polls than to teach voting through hands-on experiences and rewarding students and teachers alike for participating in what many believe to be one of the most influential elections in American history.