Staff Photo by Dan Henry / The Chattanooga Times Free Press- 4/15/14. Staff MugsDoes the truth come from the mouths of babes?
A lot of times, the answer is absolutely.
My 9-year-old is a perfect example.
Not that long ago, after a birthday party at the UTC aquatic center, I commented to my wife that if a facility like that had been built at Auburn in the 1990s when I was there, it would have been full every weekend.
To this my son commented, "Well, dad, there's been a lot of construction since the 1900s."
Yes, son, there has.
But are the students in the state of Tennessee who participated in the state-sponsored mock election foretelling the truth with their results?
The office of Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett released the results Wednesday, less than a week before the most-anticipated, contentious, dreaded and quite possibly important presidential election in modern history.
Almost 166,000 students from 479 schools representing 90 of the state's 95 counties participated in the exercise. It was open to all grades, from K-through-12, and for all schools, public, private or home.
"I'm thrilled that so many students and teachers from across our great state got behind this project with such passion," Hargett said in a news release. "Hopefully giving civics such an important role in the classroom translates into engaged citizens who continue exercising their right to vote when they are old enough to vote in real elections."
Only 12 Hamilton County schools participated in the exercise, which seems to give students a chance to participate, at least in an informal way, in an election that will be studied and dissected for years, if not decades, to come.
Those 12 are Allen Elementary, Brainerd High, Central High, CGLA, CCA, Hixson High, Lookout Valley Elementary, McConnell Elementary, Red Bank Middle, Sale Creek Middle, Spring Creek Elementary and the eighth-graders at Tyner Middle.
Why there was not district-wide participation is anyone's guess, but maybe the folks at Bonny Oaks are more focused on their jobs than encouraging schools to participate.
Either way, the results are not that surprising statewide. Donald Trump got more than 53 percent of votes, with Democrat Hillary Clinton getting 34.3 percent. The other 12.6 percent of the vote was split among the recognized independent candidates, led by Gary Johnson, who got 5 percent of the statewide ballots.
For the noble 12 Hamilton County schools that participated, the edge went to Clinton, who got 2,227 of the votes cast. Trump got 1,763. Johnson got 207, with the rest of the independents getting a smattering of votes.
Trump was especially unpopular at Brainerd (Clinton won 247-25) and was blanked among Tyner eighth-graders, where Clinton got 120 votes, Johnson got 2 and independent Mike Smith collected 1.
Will this be the truth?
Trump will likely win Tennessee; our state is as red as blood and turnips. In the end, though, that was decided long before this election turned to equal parts pro wrestling, reality TV and CSI: E-mails.
Will these numbers mirror those closer to home? Maybe, but here's thinking Trump will still carry our county.
That said, we can all hope that more people in Hamilton will be engaged in this election than our schools were.
Contact Jay Greeson at jgreeson@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6343.