Yesterday students in Classes 6 to 8 elected one girl and one boy to each of seven special positions within the student body: school captains, cultural captains, literary captains, and house captains. (All upper grade children are placed in one of four houses, teams which compete against eachother in athletic and other competitions.) To begin the process, all aspiring leaders were called to the front of the assembly:
Then, beginning with the school captains race, each candidate gave a brief impromptu speech. The eloquent speaker shown below was ultimately elected Female School Captain with 99 votes to her closest competitor's 90:
The election process was more efficient than anything I've seen in Canada. The students were asked to gather rocks:
The name of each candidate was then written on a box. The students scooted past the row of boxes in sequence quick march and tossed their ballet stone in their choice's box. It happened so quickly that it was almost a secret ballot:
All of the elections happened with the dragon flag of the world's youngest democracy flying overhead. It was inspiring exercise that gave me great hope for the nation's future:
Life should be this simple and effective everywhere. What a democratic system!
ReplyDeleteI love that you are sharing this Utopian world with us outsiders, but it worries me that you are going to love the place so much- you won't want to come back to this country. :(
Mama M
democracy at its best
ReplyDeletesounds like your first week at school was very exicting
thanks for sharing Mom B