Why my 8th Grade Son is the Best at Characterizing the Trump/Biden Debate

By Kelley

For one of his social studies assignments, happening in this weird homeschooling/Internet classroom of nightmares, my oldest son had to report on the first presidential debate of the 2020 election.

Being only a few weeks from my 51st birthday myself, I was excited to share this element of our democracy with the 14 year old, because, after all — come the 2024 election, he’ll have his own ballot.

Jesus.

My kid will be voting in the next election! And soon he’ll be driving, which…don’t even get me started.

Anyway, here we are, watching the debate. His teacher would like notes from each of the issues the candidates are discussing.

And there’s the rub. It didn’t take ten minutes before the entire space seemed to descend into madness. My kid watches, wide-eyed, and after a while he starts turning to me: “Was that economy?” “Was that Covid?” “Are they talking about taxes now?”

“Mom, what are they talking about now???”

I taught English and Drams for twenty years, so I should be used to utter subjectivity. I should be prepared for deviation from a central topic (exploration, wed say. You have to EXPLORE a topic in all its myriad possibilities…)

This debate was not exploration. It was chaos. My poor eighth grader is supposed to be learning the broad points of democracy for his social studies class. Instead, it’s a referendum on…