Ask me how a bill becomes a law and I’ll stare at you like you just asked me to do long division in my head with no paper, no calculator and no hope. But ask me what snack I’d vote for? Suddenly, I’ve got a platform, a campaign, and a media strategy — and that’s not just the snack monster inside me talking.
It’s weird that I can confidently tell you I want “spicy nacho cheese” in office, but I still have to Google what the three branches of government actually do.
When I was in school, learning about the government meant handing over my phone to one of those wall cubby pockets (for extra credit — and let’s be real, I needed it), then zoning out during PowerPoint lectures while actively trying to zone back in. Most of it involved memorizing textbook facts for a quiz I’d forget the second the unit ended. Riveting stuff. These days, I rely on a combination of Google and blind optimism to make sense of it all.
But what if learning about the government actually meant becoming part of it? What if we let students make real decisions and debate issues that matter to them — like whether homework should be banned on Fridays?
That’s where mock elections come in. And honestly, they’re one of the most underrated tools for learning about civics.
You give a bunch of students something to vote on. You let them campaign. Make posters. Give speeches. Argue — respectfully, of course, this is still a classroom. Then you let them cast their vote. Boom: they’ve just experienced how voting actually works.
Give kids the chance to elect a classroom mayor and suddenly you’ve got slogans, handshakes, and maybe even snack-based bribery. It’s chaos — but the fun kind. And more importantly, it sticks. It becomes something they understand, not just something they’re told.
When students get to do the thing, instead of just reading about it, they remember it. If we want more people to care about voting later, we need to make it feel real earlier. Not boring. Not intimidating. Just people making choices — together.
And that can start right in a classroom.
