The lesson plan below is intended to work with elections covered by ProCon, but may be adapted to work with other elections.
Objective:
Students will consider what qualifies a person to be president.
Students will:
- examine the role of president
- develop critical thinking skills
Resources/Materials:
- ProCon.org election coverage
- Section 1 of the “How to Become the US President” resource (includes the necessary sections of the Constitution)
Preparation:
- Teachers may want to prepare their preferred lecture or activity on the constitutional requirements to be president.
- This lesson plan can be paired with the “Presidential Electability” lesson plan to compare and contrast whether the most electable candidate is the most qualified candidate for the job.
Activity:
- Explore the constitutional requirements to be president with students.
- As a class, have students brainstorm a list of qualifications to be president beyond those in the constitution.
- In small groups, have students rank all of the brainstormed qualifications, including which lower-ranked qualifications they would excuse, if any.
- Have students examine the biographies of each candidate (or a select few) in ProCon.org election coverage. and determine which (if any) candidates meet their criteria for the position.
- Students may report their findings in a brief oral report to the class.
- Have students consider and discuss why some qualifications may be more important to certain groups.
- Students may also:
a. Write a job ad for the POTUS position using their brainstormed qualifications.
b. Explore who else might be qualified to be President–local leaders, celebrities, or family members.
c. Consider what path they would take to become the most qualified president for the job.
Evaluation:
- Understanding of role of president
- Critical thinking skills
- Quality of report
