Election Issues Spark Students’ Interest

VALLEY GLEN —  Ruben Zepeda’s advanced placement government class at Grant High School has gotten more than just a textbook lesson in presidential politics in the three weeks since Election Day.

The students have watched the political, legal and public relations jousting by the George W. Bush and Al Gore camps with a keen sense that they are witnessing history in the making.

Their curiosity about the cliffhanger election was apparent Wednesday as they questioned Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Mission Hills) about the electoral process as well as international affairs and local issues during the congressman’s visit to their class.

“This has been one of the most unbelievably complicated, confusing and controversial elections that I’ve lived through,” Berman said. “At some point this will end. Our institutions will survive, and perhaps get stronger.”

Although the battle for the White House has dominated class discussions since Nov. 7, the 50 students gathered in Zepeda’s second-floor classroom for the hourlong session had more on their minds than dimpled chads or butterfly ballots.

The upperclassmen queried Berman on immigration, public education, international trade, crime, human rights, lobbyists and Internet regulation, among other issues.

After the session, Larry Brown, a 17-year-old senior, said he had a better understanding of presidential post-election issues. “The president plays a large role in government,” he said. “We have two men who want the job and they are fairly aggressive, and rightfully so.”

Senior Elizabeth Cortes, also 17, said she thought Berman was fair in his description of the battle for the Oval Office.

“Even though he’s a Democrat, he didn’t put down George Bush,” she said.

Although Berman stuck mostly to the electoral issues, he couldn’t resist expressing a strong opinion when a student asked him what he thought about Bush proclaiming himself the nation’s next president Sunday after being certified the winner of Florida’s 25 electoral votes.

“Given the tightness of the race, I thought it would have been far better to have held off,” Berman said. “The less they take those positions now, the better they will be able to reach out later on.”

In the weeks leading up to Election Day, Zepeda said, his students closely watched developments in the presidential race.

“My students have some very strong beliefs about what should happen in the presidential race,” he said. “I’ve had some students say that Gore should concede, others say there hasn’t been enough determining factors for him to concede.”

This year’s electoral machinations have been a teacher’s dream, he said, because they have animated an arcane process. “Sometimes it is hard to teach civics because it seems so abstract,” he said. “This obscure process is being talked about on a regular basis and it really gives a very concrete and visual opportunity for students to learn.”

Times correspondent Richard Fausset contributed to this story.