Students will improve their understanding of the role that media, imaging and messaging play in elections. Additionally, they will have an understanding of ad content and how it impacts our emotions to persuade us. This class will improve student's critical thinking skills and their ability to analyze material and be engaged media consumers. This class is taught in the historical framework of past elections and students will understand the major historical issues of the day (i.e., Cold War, Civil Rights, Economy, Foreign Policy) and how they played into each election.

Our conversations are age appropriate and inclusive. Political studies can bring out opposing viewpoints. We have extensive experience leading these types of discussions and we encourage students to give reasons for their point of view and never allow attacking, unkind, or inappropriate behavior towards another student. We understand that learning to think critically, articulate your thoughts and beliefs, and allow for opposing viewpoints are important skills for everyone to have. We believe that the best way to develop those skills is through interesting, respectful discourse. Our students do a great job of engaging in mature conversations about interesting topics. 

Barb has a degree in design and advertising and worked in print, broadcast and web media. Additionally, she worked on the Ad Council which is a non-profit that produces, distributes and promotes public service announcements on behalf of various sponsors including non-profit organizations, non-governmental organizations, and agencies of the US Government. Krista has a business degree, studied marketing and has experience with advertising and marketing of several entrepreneurial businesses.  

Some of our most popular classes are part of our Big Juicy Questions series which is a series of classes based on ethical dilemmas and ethical questions. We are well-versed in guiding students through topics and questions using Socratic Questioning on which students often differ in their opinions. This class is non-partisan and is not focused on debating current issues or political ideologies, rather on evaluating historical election media messaging, tone and content. 

We will be showing a large variety of advertisements from past campaign from the non-partisan website, The Museum of the Moving Image, The Living Room Candidate.