Lesson 3: One person does everything, the rest do nothing?

Who is going to play what role in the system of representation?

Lesson description

The students bring the results of their interviews from lesson 2 to the class. They present their results in a “flashlight” (where every student says one sentence). The teacher writes the answers about the competences of politicians on the flipchart or blackboard in order that students can visualise the trends in the answers given.

As a second step, the teacher comes back to the question of class head as a political function. The list of names of all students interested in the position is put on the blackboard. The teacher announces that in order to know who to vote for, the class has to know more about the future head of class and about his or her competences and ideas. The candidates are asked to make a short presentation about themselves that doesn’t last longer than two minutes. The main focus of their presentations should be “What I stand for”.

Once all the candidates have presented themselves, the students should have the opportunity to ask questions. They can address a person individually, but they can also ask questions that have to be answered by all the candidates.

The students then vote for the candidates. The teacher introduces two different kinds of election procedure: the open ballot and the secret ballot. The students decide which procedure they want to follow.

If they decide on the secret ballot, they should use election cards on which they fill in the name of their desired candidate in secret. They should then put their cards into a basket or box. Two students should be responsible for counting the votes and writing down the results on the flipchart or blackboard.

The pupils who count the ballots announce the name of the person who has been elected as head of class, as well as the name of the person who came second – he or she will be the deputy head of class.

The teacher gives the students the following task to do at home: “Go home and ask your parents when they last voted in an election, what kind of election it was, where it took place and how the election was organised.” (Teachers should take care not to tell the students to ask their parents who they voted for, etc.). Use the handout for this task.