Professor Imbues Students With Political Passion

Pace University Assistant Professor Chris Malone talks to high school students at a mock political convention. He teaches Pace students about the presidential selection process, then he sends them out to instruct high school students in and around New York. (Helayne Seidman For The Washington Post)

One in a series of occasional articles highlighting the philosophies and techniques of innovative teachers.

NEW YORK

Attending lectures, scouring newspapers, writing essays, debating issues: Those are the standard ways college students learn about politics. But not in Chris Malone's class.

At Pace University's Manhattan campus, in the shadow of the Brooklyn Bridge, Malone's students volunteer in political campaigns, teach high school kids what they have learned about politics and -- in presidential election years -- help stage a mock nominating convention that reflects the complexity and rowdiness of the real thing.

"When you teach politics, I don't see how you can do it through a textbook," said Malone, an assistant professor who has managed local campaigns. "If you really want to understand the world of politics, be part of it."

This approach explains why Malone's favorite moment of a three-day mock Democratic convention, staged this month at Pace, might have panicked another teacher. The moment came when "the honorable delegate from Wisconsin" tried to cast his ballots and was physically stopped by eager and exceptionally loud delegates for former Vermont governor Howard Dean and Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich of Ohio. As chants of "Let him through" rang through the auditorium, the Wisconsin delegate made it to the microphone but then abstained.

"It got pretty out of hand, but I mean that in the best sense," said Malone, 37. "I loved it when they realized that part of the process is the attempt to persuade one another of your views with different means, even if it got raucous. It was like a real convention."

Malone's goal is to turn out citizens who understand American civic traditions, values and history at a time when many educators say that social studies is getting short shrift. Some critics of the federal No Child Left Behind law say it places too much emphasis on basic reading and math skills, at the expense of other subjects.

He teaches classes in American politics, political theory and constitutional law with a passion that students say is palpable. "He has the ability to motivate his students to work because he seems so dedicated himself to this," said Pace sophomore Meme Vuong, 20. "We know that he is interested, we know that he cares, and it helps while we are learning."

Malone's commitment to furthering civic education has led him to plot an educational orbit that includes hundreds of high school and college students. His "Road to the White House" course works this way: He teaches Pace students about the presidential selection process, the differences within the major political parties, campaign finance and more. Then he sends them out to instruct about 650 students at 13 high schools in New York and nearby Westchester County.

The Pace students teach repeatedly during the semester, and together the college and high school students research, write and assemble a professional looking, 447-page "Delegate Almanac of Political Politics." The almanac is packed with details about presidential campaigns, political parties and candidates' views.

Malone said that young people learn not only by doing but by teaching others, a revelation he had when he walked into his first classroom and asked himself how he was going to get the material across to his students. Most K-12 teachers take pedagogy courses but college professors do not; they earn doctorates by attending classes and writing dissertations.

"I realized that when you have to turn around and teach other people, you learn the material in a completely different way," he said. "My students could sit there and take notes the way I did for years, or they could turn around and try to teach others, which forces them to digest the information, really understand it and then articulate it in their own words."

It has worked.

"I learned the difficulties of teaching kids who don't really have much of an interest in your subject," said Lauren Kanecko-Jones, 18, a first-year Pace student. "Learning something and then having to teach it makes you think about it in a different way than you might have. You have to think about it more, make sure you really get it."

Malone is in his eighth year of teaching. He joined the Pace faculty three years ago, coming from Hunter College and, before that, City University of New York. He was recruited to the private university -- Pace has about 13,000 students -- by the man who has become his mentor and teaching partner, professor Gregory Julian. Julian is the faculty adviser for Pace's Model United Nations Team, which has won four national championships.

Julian said Malone's approach to teaching fit with the college's commitment to civic engagement and citizenship training for its population of students from first- and second-generation working middle-class families.

The "Road to the White House" course culminated in the political convention, where the high school students were assigned to represent different states and write national party platforms that centered on eight key issues, including the budget, the war on terrorism and education. They also nominated presidential candidates. Students were allowed to select the candidates they wanted to represent, though Malone had to cajole some to fill out the Republican ranks.

"I really thought I knew about politics and about the federal budget," said Ritchie Torres, 15, a 10th-grader at Lehman High School in the Bronx, who served as chairman of the Democratic budget plank committee. "But I learned that I didn't. I've learned a lot about how things really work, and about how to differentiate between different kinds of Democrats and Republicans based on issues."

When it came time to select presidential candidates, students sat with their state delegations under signs with the names of the states. The mock Republican convention -- in which President Bush ran unopposed -- sounded like a church service compared with the Democrats', where hooting and hollering were the order of the day.

Students took turns making nominating speeches for the candidates and lobbying for their choices, waving signs and trying to sway delegates to their side. Each state delegation took turns casting ballots, and after three ballots, Dean and Kucinich were pitted against each other. The surprise winner: Kucinich, who in actual polls is near the bottom of the Democratic candidates.

Students in the second part of the course this spring -- a teleconference class, with Julian teaching a group of students at Pace's Westchester campus -- will work on presidential campaigns of their choosing, a voter registration drive and a youth agenda.

"They immerse themselves in the political world, and then our job in class is to come back and reflect upon it," Malone said. "They get the whole picture."