Presented live every four years (in the presidential election year), this 6-week course helps your student fully understand and become involved with the fundamentals of our American elections. A practical, timely course helping your student know the importance of how to be a force for good in our republic.
 

Note: This is our most popular course. The live, interactive course segments have filled and closed. Therefore, we have developed an AUDIT version that will allow students to follow the live class week by week leading up to the 2024 presidential election. The AUDIT course is not a live, interactive course.  Recordings of the live classes will be posted Monday afternoons, available for audit students to watch well before the Wednesday live chats. Mr. Hyatt will hold two live chats with audit students, one before the election and one afterwards. Access to the instructor for questions will be limited and grading of assigned essays will be done by parents. 

Total Classes: 6

Dates recordings will be posted:

Monday afternoons, October 7 to November 11, 2024. 

Dates of live chats with Audit students:

Wednesday, October 23 and November 13, 2024.

Time: 7:00 PM Eastern (6:00 Central; 5:00 Mountain; 4:00 Pacific)

Duration per class: 90 minutes

Prerequisite: Basic knowledge of American government.

Suggested Grade Level: 9^th to 12^th grade

Suggested Credit: 1/2 semester Government. For full credit, add another government course (live or recorded), or see our Government Reading List.

Fee: For 2 live chats and 6 recorded classes: $87 (Registration closes one week before the first day of class October 7. After that date, registrations are not guaranteed. There is a $20 surcharge for late enrollments after the course is closed.)

Instructor: Paul Hyatt 

Course Description: This 6-week course will explore the "ins and outs" of the American electoral process, with a special emphasis on the upcoming 2024 Presidential Election. We'll begin class five weeks prior to the November 5th election, with our last class a wrap-up, just days after we've elected a new president. (Well ... hopefully we won't have a repeat of the year 2000 "hanging chad" debacle.) Along with weekly lectures, there will be some interactive features during the class time. Perhaps we'll have a little "prognostication" contest on the outcome of certain elections.

Course Outline:

·         Week 1: Elections: Overview of Constitution & Laws

·         Week 2: Comparisons: Local v. State v. National Elections; Partisan v. Nonpartisan; Jungle Primaries; U.S. System v. other countries

·         Week 3: The Electoral College - Should It Stay or Should It Go?

·         Week 4: Anatomy of Campaigns: Operations, PACs & Super PACs, Polls & Pundits

·         Week 5: How Issues, Incidents & Outside Events Affect Campaigns

·         Week 6: Post-election Analysis - What drove the results? How accurately did we foresee the results? What are the implications of the results?

Course Materials: Provided free by the instructor or online.

Homework: Students will have a variety of "home" work assignments – reading, research, some essays, etc. Students are going to be STRONGLY encouraged to volunteer at least a couple hours of their time to any candidate or issue campaign of their choice during the 6-week period. Quizzes will be auto-graded for immediate feedback.