Most students at Guadalupe Centers Charter High School aren’t yet old enough to vote, but they know better than many people who go to the polls what’s on the ballot.

Over the past few weeks, they have looked at different races, candidates and ballot initiatives in preparation for the November 5 election. On Election Day, students will head to makeshift voting booths and cast their own ballots in a school-wide mock election.

Greg Brenner, a high school American government teacher, said educators began planning their election agenda from the start of the school year.

“My goal is for students to know more, that it’s not just about the presidential election, that there’s so much more,” Brenner said. “Especially Missouri ballot initiatives.”

Not all students took a social studies or government class this semester, so Brenner and social studies teacher Matt Buckles came up with a plan for students to learn about elections during their advisory period.

Each week, students focused on a specific topic or race. Teachers contextualized each question and presented arguments from both sides before initiating the conversation.

Brenner and Buckles also handed out QR codes allowing students to scan them to ask questions of a social studies teacher, even if the teacher wasn’t in their class.

Some students asked what would happen if there was a tie between two candidates and asked other questions related to the process, but many wondered why they needed to learn about the election if they couldn’t vote yet.

“The impact will be felt by everyone, whether you can vote or not,” Brenner said. “Giving students the opportunity to discuss it and learn more is kind of the main idea, to at least be introduced to what’s happening in these elections.”

Victor Espinoza, a sophomore, said he remembers reading a lot of “good ones” — issues and candidates — before the election. He said he also learned about the different perspectives people brought.

“Some people want this and that, but others probably don’t agree with that,” Espinoza said.

Manuel Salazar, a sophomore, said he wanted to learn more about immigration and abortion. The two presidential candidates have immigration highlightedand the voters of Missouri will decide this election whether to enshrine the right to abortion in the state constitution.

The students were also interested in sports gambling and whether its legalization in Missouri would lead to more funding for schools, Brenner said, and how a potential increase in minimum wage would have an impact on the economy.

Salazar said abortion led to the most difficult conversations among her classmates, but they overcame the difficult discussions by listening to each other.

“We respond carefully and think about what we’re going to talk about,” Salazar said. “Rather than interrupting, we wait patiently, listen to the other person, and really think about what they are talking about.”

Brenner said teachers give students space to have conversations in hopes that they actually discuss issues with each other. He worries that they’ll read their class materials and then pull out their phones to scroll through them.

Many schools don’t talk about elections

Most teachers did not plan to talk about the 2024 presidential election in their classes, according to a July study. EdWeek Research Center Survey. About half said they would avoid talking about the election because it is unrelated to the material they teach.

Others worried that teaching about elections “could lead to complaints from parents” or did not believe “students could discuss this topic among themselves in a respectful manner.”

Brenner said he thinks teachers are concerned that lessons about elections could be interpreted as leaning one way or another. That’s why he and Buckles worked with their administration on the project and also made sure that the student worksheets they handed out, the campaign ads they watched, and all of their lessons were balanced .

Buckles said the school has a large Latino population. Latinos constitute one of the the fastest growing country ethnic groups, but register to vote at lower rates. He said it’s important to inform students about Guadalupe to help counteract this trend, and because of negative campaign rhetoric toward Latinos.

“We don’t want to influence kids one way or another,” Brenner said. “We want them to be informed and make their own decisions.”

Brenner said it’s difficult for teachers to eliminate their own thoughts and biases and let students have their own conversations and make their own decisions. But Buckles said that’s part of a social studies teacher’s job.

“It’s about talking about difficult things and getting kids to understand what they think and why, and to defend their reasoning, as if that’s what we do in class every day,” said Buckles. “We’re not going to turn away from it.”

Brenner said he and Buckles had already planned what they would teach after the election; and ways to explore the impact of the results on students, their families, and their communities.

The two teachers also plan to host an optional space in the school cafeteria for students to share their emotions regarding the election results. They will watch the information and answer students’ questions.

Salazar, one of the sophomores, said he enjoyed sharing what he learned with his mother on the way home from school and asking her what she thought.

Espinoza, the other sophomore, said he takes his materials home so his parents can read them. Neither student can vote this year, but Espinoza said the lessons helped him prepare and learn more about the voting process.

Salazar thinks more schools should teach politics.

“If you don’t prepare someone, they’ll never truly be ready for the future,” Salazar said.