Almost every student “knows” what political party they side with.  Do they actually know where their political ideology rests or is it what they hear in the news, from family, friends, or is just the popular thing to do?  Regardless of what we adults think, we ultimately want our students to develop their own beliefs and ideologies and become free thinkers (in only 4-5 years, our students will be of voting age.  Being able to develop our own thought process as it relates to political issues is important; especially in a low-stakes environment of our classroom).

Today, we will be completing a basic questionnaire as it relates to a set of major beliefs within each political party.  Each student will either agree or disagree with each set of statement, which will eventually be scored, allowing each student to get a better understanding of what THEIR beliefs are (without the influence of others telling them what they should pick) (there are hundreds of tests and lists out there and I understand this one is not perfect…but it is in language easy enough for most students to understand).

Next, we will take some time to evaluate the party platforms of each major political party.  It is time the students read for themselves what each party stands for and to go straight to the source.

The list we will complete is linked here.