Voting as a Rite of Passage

This morning during breakfast, my sixteen-year-old daughter informed me that of the three rites of passage into adulthood --- learning to drive, reaching the legal drinking age, and getting to vote --- she really wants to be able to vote. “I feel so helpless watching other people cast their ballots,” she said. “I want to vote more than I want to drive a car.” Fortunately, she didn’t mention anything about the drinking age. :-)

Being the owner of a degree in Political Science, hearing my child express the desire to participate in the American political process is like the owner of Janet’s Planet feeling joy at her daughter’s first composition (see Chloe's Debut Story on Janet's Planet). It is music to my heart. I shouldn’t be surprised by this tune, however. I have dragged my daughter to polling places since she was born. Every two years, I would close the voting booth curtains with the big red handle and explain to her what I was doing by pulling all the levers. When she was younger, I think she just liked to help make the red arrows appear, the result of pulling a lever to cast a vote for a particular candidate. As she grew, I gave her the job of pulling the red handle to close the curtains and, again, to open the curtains and cast my vote. And, of course, there were the “I Voted Today” stickers that the election officials handed out to everyone. Those were always a big hit.

I guess at some point, voting became fun. It was a place to play “levers and stickers.” As the years passed, however, and (I’m sure) thanks to the influence of constant news and political discussions at home, my daughter realized that voting was a powerful tool for making her voice heard amongst the throng of so many other voices clamoring for attention. One election expert claims that the election nearest a child’s tenth birthday is the most powerful in shaping his/her attitude about voting (see Engage Children in Election Education). For my daughter, that was the 2000 Presidential campaign. No wonder voting made such an impression on her! That campaign left an impression on all of us, but I digress…

Today, my prayer for Katherine the Great is that, as she ages and observes the political process more closely as an adult, her faith in the ability to have a say continues to shine with as much enthusiasm as it did this morning at the breakfast table.
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Two articles with ideas for teaching children about elections:

Books for Teaching About Elections by Genia Connell
Use Children’s Literature to Teach About Elections by Lauren Gattilia