Political Cartoons

It’s no secret that Madison is a pretty political place. Today, students were engaged in our Garden Signs project when an interesting conversation happened. One student said something to the effect of ‘Scott Walker wants to close all the public schools.” I have no idea where this came from, I missed the beginning of their exchange. Another student, who’s father is a reporter, proceeded to correct the student with a surprisingly very factual and grown up answer. This began a whole conversation between kindergartners, first graders and second graders about our Wisconsin Governor, Scott Walker.

One of the students was already using some free drawing time to draw some cartoons on her own.

So the rest of the class started drawing their own cartoons and they turned very political. They have very strong feelings about Scott Walker. The cartoons started getting a little inappropriate so at this point, we stopped drawing and discussed what a political cartoon was. We also talked about how you can disagree with someone and not wish them harm. It was also important for them to understand the role art plays in sharing one’s opinion and ideas! Wow, I did not plan for THIS intense lesson with kinders through 2nd graders!

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In another enrichment class, one of the teachers told a story of JFK accidentally saying he was a jelly doughnut when he gave a speech in German. They were inspired to create these cartoons in repsonse:

Love the creativity and the thought process in these.

*Disclaimer: For you those of you who don’t know me very well, I just want to make it clear that I did not talk about MY personal opinion of Scott Walker with these kids. I made it clear that it is important for everyone to feel comfortable expressing their own opinions through art. I did clearly state that I love our public schools and think it’s important for them to have a good public education. This should not be a controversial statement.