A group of Saline High School students worked on a project their teacher described as a great way for them to see that government and politics isn’t just something that happens “over there” for adults in Lansing or Washington, but is something that can shape their lives even as students at SHS.

The project took place in Brandon Smith’s classroom. Smith is a Social Studies and an AP Government teacher at SHS. In what sounds like a very interesting project, the Sun Times News (STN) connected with him to learn more.

“Students were in groups of three to four, and in those groups were asked to create a political party around a series of changes they would like to see at SHS,” Smith said. “We would then hold an in class election, so the groups needed to work on appealing to the electorate (in this case their classmates), and come up with issues that would help them gain voters.”

He said they had to create a party platform, “much like we see from our current major parties, where they laid out their stances.”

For this assignment, Smith said they came up with five policies each to include in their platform. The students also had to create a 30 second to 1 minute campaign ad, as well as a bumper sticker.

Across his three AP Gov. classes, he said the winning parties were the Free Wheelin’ Party, which advocated for no parking pass fees at the school, the Pawsitive Learning Party which called for more therapy dogs in school, and the Munchocratic Party, which called for better food in the school, whether it was lunches or snacks.

Smith said the three most commonly referenced topics for the students were later start times, more/better food, and cheaper/free parking passes.

STN asked how it all turned out.

“Overall, I think the project was a success, not only from our objective of getting students to understand how political parties organize and mobilize, but also getting students to think about how they can use their political voice in a meaningful way, even at their age,” Smith answered.

He added, “A requirement of AP Gov students is that they must attend two local political meetings per trimester. Those often take the form of Saline City Council meetings or Saline Board of Education meetings. Maybe we will see some of these issues pop up on an agenda there in the future!”

Photo: Saline students Andrew Lenz, at left and Evan Schlitt, on the right, give their presentation. At far right is SHS Assistant Principal, James Rafko, who popped in as a surprise endorsement for their party! Photo courtesy of Brandon Smith