Turning to our calling as teachers, if we want to inspire our students to do their duty as citizens (that’s the admittedly old-fashioned way of looking at it), one of the most effective ways to teach is by example. The Florida primary is on August 23 and the deadline to register to vote in the primary is July 25. For anyone voting by mail, the supervisors of elections will tend to send mail ballots during the week of July 14 – 21, so UFF recommends requesting a mail ballot before then. For more information, see the Florida Division of Elections; to check your current status as a voter, see the Voter Information Lookup page. For more details, see the July 4 Extra.
Citizenship being an important part of education, the United Faculty of Florida is launching a UFF Votes campaign complete with #UFFvotes twitter account. But what can you tell your students, other than you voted (and displaying your “I voted” sticker)? You can encourage students to vote, although you should not tell them how to vote (that would probably turn them off, anyway): UFF has sent out a UFF General Election Guidance for faculty who would like to encourage young citizens.