CASS COUNTY– Today’s inauguration will be a topic in the local classrooms.
Jake Brown, Griswold High School Social Science teacher, said students will discuss the event, and are likely to watch the president’s speech on Monday.
“I personally enjoy politics myself, so when we get an opportunity to talk politics, whether it’s presidential election or something big, we take an opportunity to talk about it,” Brown said on Thursday.
He said he thinks all inauguration’s are important-because “anytime we get a new president in office, I think it’s important,” but said this one is different, because “You’ve seen through the last how many elections, you can call (the result) before they even happen. And this one was just a complete shock to what (Trump) calls the establishment and what the media thought.”
Tony Petersen, one of Exira-Elk Horn-Kimballton’s Social Studies Teachers, said the students will watch the speech on Monday, and, “We’ve taken a look at past inaugurations, both in style, substance, cost. They’ve been looking at the cost this year- which could be in excess of $200 million. Half of that will be paid by private donors, that is what the kids found out-but that means you and I are paying the other $100 million in the form of taxes.”
Atlantic Social Studies Teacher Tony Wiley said students will discuss “that it is going to be on, that some people are talking about ‘boycotting’ it, and what they think of it if they get to watch it.”
Luke Symonds, CAM Social Studies Teacher, said he plans to have his students watch the inauguration, and said since the presidential campaign started, there has been a lot of discussion about it.
“Definitely last year we spent a lot of time (discussing it) when there were multiple candidates for the Republicans and the Democrats,” Symonds said.
He also said he thinks students have a lot more information these days about politics- “With social media, kids have more information at their fingertips,” he said- and that has lead to a lot of good discussions on the topic.
