Rock the Vote

Jason Endacott (Social Sciences) and KSC alum Michael Szafir ‘08 presented “Using Societal Climate to Analyze Political Choices” at the National Council for the Social Studies Conference in Houston November 14–16.

The project, which started as a KSC 2008 Academic Excellence Conference presentation called “Rock the Vote: Using Cultural Climate to Reinforce Students’ Historical Thinking,” encourages students to explore multiple genres of primary sources from a specific time period to gain a deeper understanding of why people may have voted as they did in a presidential election. Using the presidential election of 1992 as an example, the sample lesson unit presented looks at Time magazine articles, MTV’s “Rock the Vote” campaign, and news coverage of the period to define the societal climate. The presentation concludes: “While certainly not a fail-safe predictor of elections, using these primary sources in conjunction with detailed information about the Presidential campaigns and data from the polls, students will find that elections from the past can take on almost as much meaning as the elections they live through today.”

“We turned his AEC presentation into a national-conference-worthy proposal and submitted it in March,” says Endacott. “I am very proud of Mike’s performance at this national-level event, and I think it says a great deal about what we do here at KSC.”

Szafir is now teaching at the Woodstock Academy in Connecticut.

Courtesy photo: KSC alum Michael Szafir ‘08 and Jason Endacott (Social Sciences) at the National Council for the Social Studies Conference in Houston.