Most people know that every four years is the presidential election. In the Local, State, and National Government classes at North Point, the teachers do things a little bit differently to help their students better understand the election and what it all means.

L.S.N. teachers say that the main difference in their classes is that during the year of the presidential election, students get to participate in an election debate project. The students get to act as an assigned candidate, and debate their platform and rebuttal to the other candidate on a certain issue in politics. According to Mrs. Nadasky, teacher of a government class at North Point, the debate project helps students learn speaking skills, writing skills, research skills, and how to argue a point.

Local, State, and National Government teachers say that the debate makes the election easier to understand. Nadasky also said that she believes that everyone needs to be able to understand the elections and political parties because it will be their obligation to vote someday. She said that if people don’t understand politics, they may vote irresponsibly, which could affect our country in a negative way.

This election debate project could also affect the way students perform in their L.S.N. classes. Participation in the class debate could increase students’ interests in the subject overall. Many students say that Government is a boring class, but once some students complete the election debate project, they say that the project was actually sort of fun.

The year of the presidential election is a great opportunity for students to learn more about politics. Not only do they learn about the election of that year, but they also learn about the political parties and politics in general.