West Seattle schools: Sealth hosts Bosnia-Herzegovina visitors & holds ‘mock’ vote

Two memorable events at Chief Sealth International High School on Tuesday – one that relates to the “international” part of its name:

(Photo courtesy Noah Zeichner; subsequent 4 are by WSB’s Patrick Sand)
Students in Noah Zeichner‘s social-studies classes got to meet 18 of their counterparts from Bosnia and Herzegovina, visiting as part of a youth-leadership program sponsored by a division of the U.S. State Department. (Interestingly, while they were at Sealth, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was visiting Bosnia.) Along with the Seattle stop, the visitors also are going to the state Capitol in Olympia – and to the “other Washington” as well.

This is the first of their three weeks in the U.S. Teacher Zeichner, by the way, had a Sealth alum on hand to help – Kylee Schmuck had been to Bosnia, we’re told, and was able to do some interpreting:

While all that was going on, so was an event of national import, hinted at in the T-shirt Zeichner wore: Throughout the day, Sealth students spent time in the library, casting their votes by computer in a national “mock election”:

They are among about a million students nationwide voting between October 22nd and November 1st, using what’s described as “a state-of-the art online voting system” in a program sponsored by the Youth Leadership Initiative, a national civic-education program based at the University of Virginia Center for Politics.

Election results are supposed to be available next Monday – one day before the “real” U.S. election; nationwide, students voted in U.S. House and Senate and governor races as well as the presidential contest.

Grant October 31, 2012 (8:48 am)

The state is self-perpetuating with students who are forced to attend school being indoctrinated that voting is a “civic duty” and that they must participate in what some see as an immoral system of force and coercion.

WSB October 31, 2012 (10:08 am)

Indoctrinated … that they “must participate”? With such a frankly abysmal participation rate among adults, for decades now (at age 12 in the ’70s, I found myself begging my own mother to start voting)? If only more people WOULD vote – and would make truly informed choices including giving non-major-party candidates fair consideration and considering running for election themselves – maybe “the state” would be in a better state. I know, dream on. – TR

Dave October 31, 2012 (10:55 am)

If you are against voting one does wonder why you live in this country, it’s kind of the whole point.

miws October 31, 2012 (11:31 am)

Grant, no matter how these elections turn out; Local, State, and Federal, I trust we will be hearing no complaints from you?
.

Mike

Grant October 31, 2012 (1:26 pm)

Actually, Mike, my right to complain is solidified by my refusal to participate in a morally corrupt system and process. One could argue that those who do participate have no right to complain; they participated in a corrupt system and are therefore partially to blame for the mess that is the federal (or state, or local) government. If anything, nonvoters have more right to complain than voters.

Grant October 31, 2012 (1:28 pm)

Dave, I love my country. I dislike my corrupt government, which is based on coercion and force and 51% of the people telling 49% of the people how to live their lives.

The “whole point” of living in this country is not choosing different puppet masters every four years.

miws October 31, 2012 (1:30 pm)

Okay, so let’s just operate without a Government.

Welcome to Somalia….

Mike

Grant October 31, 2012 (2:27 pm)

Yes! The Somalia Fallacy! An oft-repeated thought-terminating cliche prolifically used on the Internet as a lazy attempt at argumentation.

Somalia is not anarchical; it’s had a working government since 2000, and Somalia adopted a constitution and elected a president this year.

Anarchy is not chaos. Anarchy is the lack of a ruler. There are examples of anarchy working; research medieval Iceland or Southeast Asian region of Zomia. Here’s a working paper on Iceland: “Discovering Law: Hayekian Competition in Medieval Iceland”: http://goo.gl/TV3Eb

Enjoy! :)

Dave October 31, 2012 (2:52 pm)

I am sure Medieval Iceland is relevant to 2012 America, i’ll take a pass on the reading, i’ll wait for your manifesto instead.

Grant October 31, 2012 (3:27 pm)

Ah, the chronological snobbery fallacy. That’s a good one, too.
.
Applying the logic, or lack thereof, that ideas or thinking from previous eras have no relevance to modern times, you must surely then eschew democracy since the Greeks “invented” it more than 2,000 years ago.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronological_snobbery
.
.

G October 31, 2012 (5:10 pm)

Somalia, Somalia…..seem to remember an ill-fated U.S. intervention over there in the 1990’s.

G October 31, 2012 (7:03 pm)

Speaking of Bosnia, remember the military intervention in the 1990’s. Oh, don’t forget the Desert Fox campaign in Iraq in the 90’s too…..don’t remember a lot of protests. I wonder why.

higgins November 1, 2012 (3:21 pm)

Sounds like Grant’s bored and needs to ruffle some feathers.

Grant November 1, 2012 (3:39 pm)

Nope. Not bored and not here to “ruffle feathers”; just take umbrage at the constant demands that I vote. Also take umbrage that students, who are forced to attend school through compulsory education laws, are not taught to think critically about their participation in a system where two wolves and a sheep decide what’s for dinner. I take umbrage at an educational system that has academic “standards” like 1.4.1 “Explains why voting is a civic duty” when it’s debatable that voting is in fact a “duty”.

Sorry, comment time is over.