My children - J. and E. in particular – are just as excited about today’s election as I am (GO OBAMA!!!), and as a family, we’ve been having even more of our usual very frequent political discussions. I want my children to be able to hold their own in any political discourse, and to be able to express their views with clarity and conviction. I am teaching the kids that vigorous political debate is good and important, but that empty political trashtalk is both pointless and rude. If they have an opinion – whatever it is – I expect them to be able to back it up with facts and analysis. In our household, supporting or opposing a particular candidate without clearly articulated justification doesn’t fly.
As a mother, I am very bothered when I hear other parents teach their children that it’s acceptable or useful to mock or insult candidates or the President in ways that aren’t directly related to issues. I hate hearing children spout nasty, ad hominem stuff like “Bush is stupid.” When I hear that from a child or teenager, I challenge him or her to clearly articulate at least three substantive policy issues on which they disagree with Bush. If they can’t, I point out that calling him “stupid” only draws attention to their own ignorance on the issues. And frankly, in my anecdotal experience (your mileage may vary), it’s more likely to be progressive/liberal parents who encourage this sort of political trashtalk from their children, some too young to even understand what the president even does.
On the other hand, the most egregious example of this sort of thing I’ve ever heard came from a young Republican, and I heard it just yesterday. My 8th grade daughter told me she has a teen acquaintance here in town who says he’s starting a Facebook group dedicated to the proposition that if Obama wins, he (the kid) is joining the KKK.
(As an aside, given the fact that the youth in question is Asian, and has a Hispanic sounding name, I doubt he’ll receive much of a warm welcome from the racist loser hierarachy)
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Kids are intuitive and pick this up at home, school, neighbours, TV, web.
Racism and bigotry of all types has been tolerated though- out the campaign, it’s in the ether nationally. If i hear it in my liberal NY, it must be rampart down south, and everywhere else.
Katie – I htink it’s really cool that you talk politics with your kids. I grew up on a household where no opinion different from my parents was really allowed. Even now, my parents are raising my 16 year old nephew and when he tries to discuss his more liberal stance on politics, they just tell him he’s too young to have an opinion about anything and that he doesn’t know what he’s talking about.
I’ve also run across these little smart-ass kids you’re talking about. A couple of weeks ago this kid who was selling apples at the farmer’s market was talking all sorts of silliness about Obama. It was very clear that he was just repeating what he’d heard his parents say and really had no clue what he was talking about. I really wanted to demand to speak to his parents and give them a piece of my mind about it.
I am more impressed when children have a different point of view from their parents and can articulate because in most cases it means they are thinking on their own. I know through the years my political opinions have changed due to personal experience and I don’t think a lot of young children who have not worked can really form these.
i support your approach to political education of your children, but i think challenging random teenagers who say “bush is stupid” in your presence is kinda too much. They can say whatever they want, even if you happen to hear it; it’s just the way they are brought up. it’s their family thing. imagine if they said “Mr X is stupid”, you wouldnt care less, so the same with politicians. Some parents just might not feel necessary to teach their kids to talk politics
My family raised the three of us the same way: encouraging strong opinions–whatever they may be–so long as you can back them up with something. We kids have differing views on a lot of things and only two of us voted the same way (likely), but we respect each others’ opinions because we were raised to do so.
I’m dismayed by the comments of some of my friends who weren’t taught that it’s OK to disagree and that to do so doesn’t mean the other person is a Bad Person. I knew I would lose friends if I expressed my views in my various online properties so I didn’t.
This morning I was so hopeful and excited, but these comments brought me back to earth with a thud. There’s still a lot of work to do to eradicate ignorance and encourage plurality. It has to start in the home.
I’m very grateful to my parents for that lesson, although I struggle today with the desire to eliminate some of these friends I’ve just labeled as ignorant from my world. After all, that would be intolerant.
I love this post.