Student Government Elections

The party that wen on to win the election presents their platform.

Student government is a common practice in the United States. It's also a common practice in Peru. But, as with everything, there's a different way to do things. The election process for the student government of FyA 44 was much more involved and interesting than the process we had at Boston Latin. Here's a list of the differences:

1. There is no student president. There's a student mayor. So all the titles follow. The student government's official name is the municipio escolar, the school municipality.

2. It isn't a class government, it's the whole school's government. At Latin School we only chose a student government once, that was in 12^th grade. At FyA 44, every student from 1^st grade of Primaria to the graduating class of Secundaria can vote.

3. The graduating class doesn't run the show. In fact none of the students running for school mayor were graduating students. This is because seniors have a lot of extra work with going to Academias (privately run get into college prep academies that meet every day after school). They don't have time to run the school.

4. There are political parties. When I voted, that one time, as a 12^th grader, I picked 4 individuals to fill the roles of President, Vice President,* Treasurer, and Secretary. Each position was a contest between multiple candidates. After a runoff election 2 candidates were selected for each position. I could chose any combination of candidates to fill the roles.

In FyA 44's election, students had to form listas (lists), which are basically political parties. There were four this year. Votes are cast for the party. So you had to chose which lista seemed to be the best. Obviously the candidate for mayor in each party was the most important in deciding votes, but it's possible for students to vote against the mayoral candidate they prefer if they believe that a different party is overall better.

5. There's a debate. All the students from 3^rd grade of Primaria up to 5^th year of Secundaria (the graduating class, but equal in age to US high school juniors) had to attend a 90 minute assembly** during which the four parties presented their platforms and then debated, giving answers to questions drawn from the audience of students.

6. Voting is mandatory. Part of the point of a student government is to give students a taste of the democratic process. In Peru the democratic process is mandatory, so the school version of it is mandatory too. Any student who did not cast a vote had to pay a small fee. I am not making this up.

7. You need an ID to vote. This also has to do with recreating the Peruvian electoral process. If you don't bring your government issued ID to the polls, you can't vote. Students who didn't bring their government issued ID to the school polls weren't allowed to vote either.***

8. You have to go to a polling site (certain classroom) to vote. When I was in high school, I cast my vote on a small piece of paper one morning during homeroom. Within the 6 minute morning homeroom block, all 300 and something BLS seniors had cast their votes. At FyA 44, the students had to go to specific classrooms to vote. They had to follow the same basic process their parents followed a few weeks ago in the presidential election. This means long lines, this means checking each student in to vote individually. It's inefficient in terms of time, but it is a much more realistic imitation of the country's electoral process than what I went through in the US.

Students attend the debate.

I think this is one area in which Peruvian education outshines US-American education. The process of choosing the student government is much more focused on teaching students the “how” of voting. Knowing how to vote is a key piece of “responsible and engaged citizenship.”**** Likewise, the formation of political parties more closely mirrors how campaigns are run. No student government election can capture the full drama and complexity of a national presidential election, but as a pedagogical exercise, the way they were run as FyA 44 was outstanding.

*God forbid any student government anywhere actually needs a Vice President.

**There's no actual auditorium, so they had to stand through the whole thing.

***There are not special school issued student IDs here.

****BLS alums know I'm referring to Latin School's mission statement. “Boston Latin School seeks to ground its students in a contemporary, classical education, as preparation for successful college studies, responsible and engaged citizenship, and a rewarding life.”