U.S. CIVICS 101

I was at JHS half of this week, and I did a U.S./Japan culture trivia quiz with the 9th graders. I asked questions that pointed out some differences between the two that Japanese kids might not know like driving on opposite sides of the road, and other assorted pop trivia. At the end of the class, we talked about the U.S. presidential election and I asked their opinions.

I also asked who they would've voted for if they were able. Almost unanimously, the kids said Kerry was the better pick. Reasons cited were the desire for "world peace" and because "Bush loves war." In one class, I was surprised by the opionated response of one girl who said she supports Bush. I asked why, and she said something to the effect that "war in Iraq was good, because terrorists killed a Japanese person." She was referring to Shosei Koda, the young Japanese man who was held hostage and beheaded by Islamic militants in Iraq last month. She was like "It's good that Bush made war in Iraq...for the sake of revenge." I didn't bother trying to counter her flawed, misinformed young point of view due to time and language constraints. I told them that I'd voted in the election as an absentee, then someone asked me who I'd voted for. I told them Kerry. My young co-teacher, Sayako, said she was surprised and impressed that I'd voted in the U.S. election from overseas. I don't know why.

I proceeded to attempt to explain the U.S. electoral system. Sayako graciously supported my lecture with Japanese translation. We had a super-sized image of a U.S. electoral map I'd dug up off the net as a visual aid. The students seemed quite interested and listened attentively. Even the kids who usually chatterbox and zone out paid close attention to my lecture. I basically tried to make a point that the system was imbalanced and that a great deal of Americans felt they'd been cheated by the electoral college system. I didn't go into divulging the dirty antics of race-based voter intimidation, shady electronic voting machines and the like. For junior high schoolers, just trying to digest a complex voting system of foreign country was more than enough education for a day. Perhaps we'll save neo-fascism and corporate hegemony for another day.

And who said I was just an English teacher?