You can learn a lot about the presidential candidates by walking around Beachwood High School these days.
Students here are gearing up for a mock election and nearly every wall has posters explaining the candidates' positions. Senior Sam Kay says even the graffiti is political.
KAY: This might sound absurd, but when you go into the bathroom, there's writing on the wall: Obama! No, Hillary!
With all that excitement over politics, Beachwood government teacher Greg Deegan saw an opportunity.
The curriculum in his classes right now is all politics all the time.
Photo Gallery 
Teacher Greg Deegan. 
Preschool teacher Christopher Moore and class president Elizabeth Wooley. |
DEEGAN: I believe this is Hillary over here, so if the Hillary group will get over here, and the Barack group will get over there, and I believe in the middle is Huckabee…..
This class of 11th and 12th graders broke into groups to research the candidates' positions. On this day, teacher Deegan is asking what they've learned, in this case about immigration.
DEEGAN: What about Barack? What does he focus on? He wants to reform the steps needed to become a citizen. And he voted yes…
Deegan is a high-energy teacher, and clearly relishes this moment.
DEEGAN: it's been encouraging this semester to see kids somewhat curious, to the point of actually wanting to engage in conversation, asking me questions, also to the point where they're actually pretty well informed. So it's been heartening, it's nice to see. This is the kind of reality you hope for when you become a social studies teacher.
DEEGAN: OK, Huckabee?
STUDENT: He wants to make the Bush tax cuts permanent, and to expand upon it.
Greg Deegan's class has been working on this assignment for a few weeks now, and he asks the students if spending so much time researching the candidates has changed their perceptions at all. Junior Evan Weiss says he's still not a big fan of Republican Mike Huckabee, but he's surprised himself.
WEISS: Like education and immigration, I really agree with his ideas. Like, I really think we should fix the immigration problem. Like, stopping immigrants coming in before we fix all the internal problems. And in education, I really like that he wants kids to take more arts and music, because I think that's really important.
DEEGAN: So at least on a couple of issues, you're like, oh wow, I actually agree with him.
While schools across the state are holding mock elections and talking about the candidates, it's not just the older kids who are taking this primary seriously.
Christopher Moore is a preschool teacher at the First Baptist Church in Shaker Heights and he says even his four year old students are excited.
MOORE: We've had some kids come up and just tell us out of the blue, Mr. Chris, I'm voting for Barack, or I'm voting for Hillary, you know, and it's like, Oh Really!
And, Moore says, the preschoolers just had their own little election for class president.
MOORE: It did like coincide with the primaries exactly.
In the race, the winner was 4 and a half year old Elizabeth Wooley-their first female president. She won with a campaign platform no one could compete with: if they picked her, she said, the class would get a new guinea pig. Clearly, she knew her audience.
WOOLEY: I think my friends like pets.
ME: And do they like the new guinea pig?
WOOLEY: Yes!
Yes, teacher Moore says, unlike so many politicians, Wooley kept her campaign promise.
MOORE: That's the beauty of preschool. These kids, they're really honest, they tell the truth, and they don't like breaking promises.
And, while none of those students can vote, some high schoolers can, and for them, this primary isn't just academic.