How we managed a middle school election win (and loss) on the same day
For weeks, my house was abuzz with the excitement around the student government election both my middle schoolers are involved in. My son was running for 6th grade president and my daughter, an 8th grader, for student body president. For my son, the stakes are pretty low. True to personality he told us, “I’m running for 6th grade president.” “How did that come about?”, we asked. “I just turned to the kid next to me and said, Let’s run together, I’ll be president.” Couldn’t be simpler. For my daughter, there have been countless conversations about political strategy with us, with her friends and with other adults in her life. She had a game plan for asking for campaigning (don’t be thirsty but be brave is the gist of it). She evaluated each candidate by popularity level, perceived popularity levels and their possible elementary school ties. Quite complicated. Cutting straight to the end of the story. He won. She lost. And in that moment, one of my kids was celebra...