Have Your Brothers and Sisters Voted Yet?

This post was inspired by a woman looking for a YouTube video on good nutrition. She asked social media friends if they knew a source of good advice for children about healthy eating habits because — kaching! — her kids were much more likely to listen to a YouTube video than her. I segued from the video request into voting.

Who do kids listen to? Other kids. Who do young adults listen to? Other young adults and sometimes their brothers and sisters.

Teachers, I would like to offer an end-of-day suggestion for the next week: Before students leave school, especially high school students, I would take a minute to say something like, “Don’t forget to remind your brothers and sisters who are old enough that there are only a few days left to vote. This is an extremely important election.”

The youth vote will matter more in the next 10 days than ever before. All across the internet, columnists, bloggers and others are pushing to get the vote out. Whether in person or by mail into a designated dropbox — I would not risk the U.S. mail at this point — it’s time to vote.

Early voting last Thursday morning.

I would NOT say anything about who should get that vote. Don’t open up that risky can of worms. But helping people to get to the polls — there’s no conflict of interest there, no line you should not cross.

Eduhonesty: Anyone want to throw together a YouTube video? If not, Plan B will help. Ask your classes to encourage the nation’s young and new voters to do their part. On the cusp of this election, any and all encouragement has the potential to help.

P.S. Nonteachers, please ask young voters to talk to their friends who can vote. I’d encourage going together to polling places. Where COVID makes sharing a car too problematic — which seems to be most of country at the moment — arranging to meet at a polling place to socially distance together in line while wearing masks will work fine.