Has the American election campaign been difficult to watch? Imagine if you had to explain it to a class of middle school students. Every four years, teachers in the United States explain how the government works by talking with students about the presidential campaign. But this year, some civics teachers report having difficulty when discussing the campaign. They had to explain concerns about candidates’ behavior and a lack of substance in the political debate. Javaughn Perkins is a teacher at George Washington Middle School in Alexandria, Virginia. He likes to have students watch campaign advertisements to look for their tools of persuasion. Perkins thinks that by the age of 12 or 13 years, students are at a good age to start learning about government. However, the ups and downs of the election campaign has made this year more difficult. There used to be a time when I could literally come in, we'd pop on the Washington Post or CNN or any of the other websites, and I could just go right to the front page and say, 'Let's have a conversation.' Perkins says that this year, newspaper stories are not always a good subject for 8th grade students.