Election 2012: Political Ideology (From Youth Leadership Initiative)

Younger students (even adults sometimes!) have a difficult time understanding the political ideology spectrum.  Liberal vs. conservative?  Left vs. right?  Huh?  Anyway, the best way I have found to teach this concept is to have students physically stand on a continuum.  The ideology survey I use comes from a Youth Leadership Initiative lesson plan entitled "Political Ideology Survey".  This lesson is a good start for getting students a basic understanding of ideology.  "Expanding the Ideological Spectrum" is another YLI lesson plan to go a bit deeper.  It include libertarian and totalitarian ideology.  Without further ado...

Step 1

Create signs that say weak liberal, strong liberal, moderate, weak conservative, and strong conservative.  Hang these on a long wall from left to right.  This works best in the hall!

Step 2

Instruct students to stand along the spectrum wherever they think they belong.  They should base this on prior knowledge.

Step 3 

Have students take the ideology survey from YLI.  Your job after they finish the survey is to provide the key as to whether each statement is a conservative or liberal statement.  For example...if a student says "Yes" to conservative statement, he/she has a conservative view on that issue.  If they say "No" to a conservative statement, they have a liberal view of the issue.  Students will add up all of the conservative and liberal statements to determine their ideology.  Use the following Key.

Step 4

Have students stand on the spectrum again based on their survey results.  Have a discussion!  Are there any surprises, changes, questions, etc.  Begin making the connection between liberal vs. conservative and Democrat vs. Republican (2-party system).

P.S. - Don't forget to register on the YLI website to obtain access to a ton of great resources!