A Social Studies lesson at St. Ann Regional School came alive for students on Wednesday, Dec. 10 when New Jersey State Senator Jeff Van Drew came for an afternoon visit to talk about lawmaking, government, politics and the value of public service.
The students from the school’s fourth through eighth grade classes gave the senator a warm welcome in the all-purpose room, where he spoke for about an hour about his experiences in state and local government. The visit was an offshoot of the America’s Legislators Back-to-School Program, which launched in October. A goal of the program is to increase student awareness of representative democracy.
Van Drew told students he was aware that sometimes people are frustrated that govern-ment doesn’t get the job done well enough.
“Sometimes there are people who don’t do what they should,” he said, and he told stu-dents that is why it is important for them to pay attention and to get involved, even from a young age.
“What you do and your involvement is very important,” he said.
He quizzed the students on their knowledge of New Jersey government, like the number of towns in Cape May County (16) and the number of counties in the state (21), and the students passed with flying colors naming most New Jersey counties without any assistance.
“There are many adults who would be stumped by (this),” Van Drew said.
The senator also discussed some laws that he has sponsored and spoke frankly about the difficulty in getting good ideas past the political red tape.
“It can be frustrating,” he said. But persistence pays off.
Students were persistent as well in questioning the Democratic senator about who he supported in the recent presidential election. Van Drew responded at first by asking students whom they supported. (A show of hands indicted a slight lead for John McCain.)
But as dogged as any press corps, the audience reworded the question several times in an attempt to get an answer.
In the end, Van Drew told students he’d rather not say, but he admitted that he agreed and disagreed with elements of Obama’s platform, and he said he thought both candidates had been good choices. At this juncture, it is most important to look forward, Van Drew said.
“You now have the opportunity to make sure that the change that people wanted and the change that people make is good change,” he said.
Van Drew said that visiting schools serves an important purpose.
“It’s good to get some young folks enthusiastic about and interested in public policy,” he said.
Cape May – Governor Murphy says he doesn't know anything about the drones and doesn't know what they are doing but he does know that they are not dangerous. Does anyone feel better now?
