Montana Beckham, Shark Correspondent
School Event Calendar 9-19 Progress Report
9-20 Family Reading Night 6:30-8:00
9-24 Picture Day and SAC Meeting 2:45
9-25 PLAN Test 10th Grade
9-26 Early Release
9-27 Family Reading Night 6:30-8:00 Lauren Bartholemy Shark Correspondent
Are We Prepared?
The President of the United States is a man (or, someday, a woman) who leads our country, and is able to decide the fate of our country. The decision of who will be our president has been in the hands of the generations before mine, but as the voting age nears us, will we be prepared to make that decision? With this question in mind, I ventured out to discover how well the students at Cedar Key High School understood the process of the elections, and what was happening in the election this year. Recently, both parties have held their national conventions. The National Conventions are the two separate conventions held to nominate the republican and democratic candidates. Delegates vote for the candidate according to the voting polls of the nation. With this recent event I thought that this would be an easy question for students to answer, but only one out of three actually knew the answer. Molly Gordon, 17 year old Senior claimed, "I don`t know what they are, but I have heard of them because I hear my grandma griping about them, but it`s not important to me." High School students, just years away from voting themselves, have no concern, and no grasp on the voting process or the presidential candidates. Students do not understand the difference between a liberal and conservative, saying things such as, "Conservatives are people who save resources," or that a liberal "is someone who just wants to give for free." Seeing that these students have no back ground for politics is a scary thing. These students are supposed to be voting in a few years, yet have no idea how to decide which candidate they would like. Students here news about the president every day, but pay no heed to the matter, because according to Molly Gordon "that it doesn`t really matter right now." How can we change this view on the presidential elections? Students need to know that choosing our countries leader is a large, daunting role. Who runs our nation has control of our economy, plays in our education systems, and can declare war? We need to have the ability to choose the person who is willing to work for us, and not against us. Without knowledge of what we are voting for, or even how we know who to vote for, we fall short in the ability to choose the best. Our education system offers 7th grade civics, and Economics/Government, here at Cedar Key School, but that is only two out of many. If teachers, the best would be history or English, could assign papers, or research about the government and politics to students as a segment in their curriculum, we would have the necessary knowledge to choose the future for our country effectively. Students, this is a perfect time to learn about our countries presidential election, through the news, websites, and parents. This choice is up to us in a few short years; to determine the best candidate to run our country, let`s choose the best. Sarah Bartholemy, Shark Correspondent
Coastal Clean-Up Last Saturday, the city of Cedar Key participated in the annual Coastal Clean-Up. Each year the city gets together and goes to several locations in Cedar Key that are along the coastline and gathers litter. Some people even got on boats and went to nearby islands to pick up trash. Once everyone had returned from their destination the trash was then sorted into its recycled groups and sent off to either be recycled or to the land fill. The group that collected the most trash was awarded with a treat. The event was full of participants. Cedar Key students, adults, and even people from other cities attended. Cedar Key student, Eli Glaze, commented, "I had a lot of fun at the clean-up! We collected a ton of trash, and cleaned up our home." |
