Winter 2024 — Civics!

An Exciting Time to Learn about the Government!

An Exciting Time to Learn about the Government!

What an exciting time to learn more about government! It seems to be working its way into all levels here at HMS. Last week, the Lower Elementary community went on a wonderful field trip to the New Hampshire State House in Concord. This is a politically charged time of year, and with the Presidential election coming up this year we really wanted to spend some time learning and thinking about how our government works. We are so fortunate to be close to Concord, and jumped at the chance to see this government building in action.

Doing Her Civic Duty

Doing Her Civic Duty

The first time I went to Hillside Middle School to cast my vote as a resident of Ward 2 in Manchester, NH, I noticed that all of the workers appeared to be older, probably retired residents of our community. I couldn’t help but notice that there were no younger members of my local community among them. I asked the ward moderator how one would become a person who works at the polling place on Election Day, and so began my entrance into the Ward 2 election worker community.  I’ve worked ten elections now, first as a volunteer ballot clerk and later as an elected official, one of three selectmen in our Ward. I’ll admit: it was incredibly exciting to see my name on the ballot…

Civics in the Real World

Civics in the Real World

New Hampshire is an amazing place to study civics! Although they aren't yet of voting age, the students of Hollis Montessori’s Adolescent Program (AP) got to experience being active participants in the democratic process this winter. The theme of their studies this term has been governance, and this was a great year to work on that topic. In addition to lessons on the structure of government, the rise of governance (going back to early humans, how laws are made, and political media, they got to visit presidential candidates, the State House, a Courthouse, and attended a convention and debate.