Volunteers to take kindergarten to polls Tuesday
Published: November 2, 2009
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share thisSix months after she was told she could no longer bring her kindergarten class to the polls, Clarks Green resident Chris Arcangelo has come up with an idea that she hopes will allow the 14-year tradition to continue.
On Election Day, Mrs. Arcangelo walks her 5- and 6-year-olds at St. Gregory's Early Childhood School down North Abington Road to the Clarks Green Borough Building, where they watch her vote.
But at May's primary election, poll workers told Mrs. Arcangelo she could not bring her students back because she was violating the state election code.
Maryann Spellman Young, Lackawanna County's director of elections, said the code allows a voter to bring "his or her minor children ... into the polling place and may permit one such minor child to accompany him or her into the voting compartment."
Mrs. Arcangelo said she has found about 20 people who have agreed to meet her class at the Borough Building and pair up with a student before casting their votes.
"Some people approached me after they heard about what happened in May," Mrs. Arcangelo said. "Other people, I approached. There are parents of former students, grandparents, friends of mine."
But Ms. Young said she believes what Mrs. Arcangelo is planning still violates the election code and has told the kindergarten teacher she still cannot bring her class to the polls Tuesday.
"The law is very clear. His or her minor child means ... a parent or guardian," Ms. Young said, adding that she has told Mrs. Arcangelo to contact legislators to have the law changed.
For now, Mrs. Arcangelo still plans to bring her students to the polls Tuesday, saying she did not interpret the election code to mean that a voter can bring only his or her child.
"I didn't ever want this issue to become so big," Mrs. Arcangelo said. "I do this for the educational value."
Contact the writer: enissley@timesshamrock.com
41 posted comments
I wonder where you were educated. Effect is the noun, you were using the verb. ProcEdure NOT procEEdure. Perhaps you should go to the on-line school you mentioned and get an education. Are the children really being FORCED to learn voting procedures? Really? Come on! I'm actually disappointed in myself that I wasted my evening responding to a self-righteous moron like you. Shame on me.
As a teacher of underprivileged teenagers who have had no childhood to speak of, I ask you what exactly is wrong with a little theatrics? How is nurturing the immagination of children in any way a bad thing? I'll answer my questions for you since you are obviously too ignorant to do it yourself. The answers are nothing and it's not. Your insult, sir or madam, is in fact, a compliment. Learning need not only be done in the classroom. Taking the children to witness the events of election day is a valuable learning experience. In a country of increasing apathy, this field trip shows the kids what they can be a part of in their future. It shows them they can make a difference and they should want to.
It saddens me that you fail to recognize the importance of such an event. I'm also sad that you didn't have a good educational experience. Perhaps if you're a good boy, Mrs. Arcangelo will let you have a field trip to her classroom to see her "street corner theatrics".
If ignorance is bliss, you must be an extremely happy person.
The problem with Mrs. Arcangelo is, she is teaching the wrong age group of children.
These children have young minds, and should be learning to feel the grass, and smell the roses.
They are too young to be forced to learn Voting Proceedures.
The teachers, and parents expect the children to grow up as adults too early in life.The path of learning seems to be sped up too fast in a childs life.
What is the sense of having a Book Smart adult, which is the affect of forced learning as 5 and 6 year old Adults.
I will say another thing. Parents want their children to act and relate to life growing and learning, as a adult too early in life, because they don't want to deal with a childs normal mental growth.
Ooops! I forgot, the children can get their degree on-line. Maybe that's why there are no smarts out there anymore. Hence the job markets, and the inability for real live people to construct and regain the lost applied real life situations of today. Well...Let's see what tomorrow brings! Happy voting, and look for the free lolly pops...Not for the children, but for the Adult Children!!!
This traditional trip to the polls is one of many that Chris incorporates into her kindergarten curriculum. As a parent of 2 children who have completed her class, I would recommend it to ANY parent who wants an exceptional kindergarten experience for their child. What Chris provides her students is more than knowledge of ABCs, Math, Science, Religion, etc.; she gives each and every student a wonderful memory that they will carry with them throughout their academic life. She is what every parent should want for their child’s first school encounter. From giving the children a belief in the unbelievable, to showing them the stars, to opening her home to them…..she is ONE in a MILLION!!! I commend you Chris, for what you do and for standing up for what you believe in and standing up for your students!
You spell as good as she teaches.
Jealous of what I might ask? Her theatrics. She doesn't belong teaching, but rather performing on a street corner. The best she could do was to get hired by this small time private "school". The public schools wanted nothing to do with her antics.
Spelling parent this way smoked out a self-righteous windbag like you. The waiting list for Mrs. Arcangelo's class is sometimes years long. Every "parant" that I talk to has nothing but praise for Mrs. Arcangelo and their child's kindergarten experience. You are obviously jealous of her success and admiration.
You did not fully research the topic. If you bothered to check actual facts you would have learned that Mrs. Arcangelo and her class were never found disruptive.
It frightens me to know that ignorant people like you vote!
You spell as good as she teaches.
Jealous of what I might ask? Her theatrics. She doesn't belong teaching, but rather performing on a street corner. The best she could do was to get hired by this small time private "school". The public schools wanted nothing to do with her antics.