Politics holds new role in high school classrooms

Greg Toppo:

Tuesday's historic election of Barack Obama was, to most onlookers, a watershed event -- a political game-changer, a passing of the generational torch and a defining moment in American race relations.
To the students in Gil Stange's second-period AP Economics class at Towson High School, it was a chance to test a theory: What if the Republican candidate had been the African American and the Democrat the 72-year-old white guy?

"Is it really overcoming race?" asked Allison Rich, 17, dressed in a bright-red University of New Hampshire sweatshirt. "Or is it just a party issue?"

As the results of the election sank in Wednesday, teachers in high school classrooms across the USA found themselves debriefing a group of young people who are, by all accounts, more informed and civic-minded than any in recent memory. They came of age after 9/11, after all.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at November 6, 2008 1:33 AM
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