I am a fifth grade teacher in Utah.  I have been teaching my students from day one about the election process in anticipation of these final 2 weeks of the election.  I feel the importance of this election is something fifth graders should be aware of.  In class we have been running elections for class president, and learning about what electoral votes are, how many are needed to become President, and tracking polls from the beginning of the school year.  I have also required my students to watch the debates, and discuss them with their parents, and write a summary of the 3 debates and what they thought.

Today, we had a brainstorming session where I put up one of the candidates names, and then asked for one word responses from each student as to what they thought of the candidates based on impressions from the debated and advertisements we have looked at.  When I put up McCain's name, I some responses like "brave", and "fighter".  I got more responses like "old", "mean", "wrong", and "confused".  More than 2 to 1 were negative responses.  When I put up Obama's name, I got overwhelming positive responses such as "caring", "generous", "nice", and "leader".  These responses were about 3 to 1.  Remember these are kids in one of the reddest states in the Union.  I was very surprised that my 5th graders from Utah had more positive thoughts about Obama than McCain.