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Learning to fulfill civic responsibilities at Laval Junior High School

Through the "Voters in Training" program

par John Fasciano
Voir tous les articles de John Fasciano
Article mis en ligne le 2 avril 2007 à 14:31
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Meet the teachers who coordinated the Voters in Training project at Laval Junior High School and some of the students who participated in the organization, implementation and evaluation of this exercise in democratic action: they are, left to right, standing: Hedy Newman (teacher), Angela Kallianiotis (teacher, and project coordinator), Andy Côté (teacher), Matthew Leduc (teacher), Nicolas Tomaras (student), Megan Cacchiotti (student), George Giamperis (student), Marie-Yves Julien (teacher); front row: students Dimitri Vouras, Alexandra Trempe, Stéphanie Carpentier, and Ourania Kokkalis. (Photo: Maya)

Through the "Voters in Training" program

On Thursday March 22, 2007, 307 students at Laval Junior High School participated in a mock election session organized through the Elections Quebec Voters in Training Program.

The project, which is funded by the Directeur Général des Élections du Québec and Secrétariat à la Jeunesse and coordinated by Forum Jeunesse de l’île de Montréal introduces students to democracy at work.

"LJHS students have been introduced to Democracy in ancient Greece through their History class. This experience gave students the opportunity to get involved in a real life democratic process. Throughout the project students were introduced to political programs and researched information on the candidates running in the Chomedey area," explained teacher Angela Kallianiotis.

The results from the school elections and student reactions

Liberal Party – 49%; ADQ – 26%; Green Party 11%; PQ –6%; Québec Solidaire - 4%; Independent – 2%; Marxist-Leninist Party – 2%

Nicolas Tomaras

"My school prepares me to become a good citizen by teaching us about politics and about learning the candidates’ backgrounds and knowing if they are telling the truth or not. We also try to see if the promises are possible and realistic."

Dimitri Vouras

"My school is preparing me to be a good citizen by showing me the world in a different way. They have prepared me for what other challenges I will face in life. Our citizenship teachers have assigned us to do community service which allows me to see what a good person I could be and they have also taught us the importance of voting."

Ourania Kokkalis

"Many citizens decided not to vote on March 26, 2006. I believe that voting is important and we should be obliged to vote because we need to have the right people running our province and country. We should all be educated about voting and politics. We should vote and make the best group get elected for the well being of our community."

Megan Cacchiotti

"For me, voting is a privilege that women fought to get and for people not to use it is wrong. When you vote, you are picking the outcome of who will be governing."

Stéphanie Carpentier

"According to me, having a minority government is good because each party has a different point of view and they could help each other to decide what’s good for us."

Alexandra Trempe

"The results from children at school and the results about the elections do not surprise me because we often see things through our parents’ eyes, thus we believe a lot in what they believe in."

(Photo: Maya)

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