Contest encourages students to talk politics

Date: 4/20/2009

By Laura Christiansen

Staff Intern



LONGMEADOW -- In March, the League of Women Voters of Massachusetts (LWVMA) hosted an online essay contest regarding current political issues. Four of the 17 winners were from Jamie Quinn's fifth grade class at Center School in Longmeadow.

"The mission of the league is to promote the active engagement of all citizens in the political process," Dianne Jeffery, president of LWVMA, said.

The criteria for the fourth and fifth grade levels were to answer the following question: Imagine that you were to have a 15-minute conversation with the president. What would you talk about? What topics would you ask him about and how do you think that he would respond?

"I made it a mandatory writing assignment for the whole class. They did have particular criteria, but the material they chose was completely up to them. They had to create responses based on research," Quinn said.

Upon submitting the essays, Quinn knew that she had at least one winner in the contest. She has had one winner previously in her career.

"The online essay contest is another program that gets the young people thinking about the [political] issues. In order to have a healthy democracy, we need to have people that understand how our democracy works," Jeffery said.

The LWVMA sponsors several programs that help the public get involved in politics and the voting process.

"The league sponsors candidate forums so that the general public can hear the political candidates speak about the issues. We also sponsor issue forums so that people can discuss the pros and cons of an issue. We also promote voter registration," Jeffery said.

The essay contest not only provides information about government, but also helps young children with their writing skills.

"I think they got an understanding of the world around them. They also had to understand criteria. It had to be 300 words maximum, which was difficult for [some of] them to minimize. It was the first time they had constraints on writing," Quinn said.

"We believe that voting is a right and a responsibility," Jeffery said.

According to Jeffery, the LWVMA was formed shortly after women's suffrage was granted in 1920. One of the founders of the organization thought that the right to vote was only part of the process; women needed to know how to use this right as well.