The Republican and the Democratic National Conventions have come and gone and the election rhetoric is in full swing. It used to be that we would be bombarded with T.V. adds for the two months from Labor Day till Election Day, but now election information is everywhere, T.V., Facebook, Twitter, Internet news sources, even Youtube videos. Our kids are being swamped with information that may or may not make sense to them and may or may not be true. However, I find that the greatest source of information about the candidates and their positions comes directly from home. You may not even know that you are supplying your son or daughter with their political identity, but you are.
I heard a conversation the other day among a group of fourth graders. It reflected the fact that their families would suffer under the tax hikes proposed by Obama and that they would not be voting for him again. Other students felt that Obama was trying to be fair and take care of everyone and they would be voting for him again. Before the argument became too heated, I stepped in to demonstrate that we all had opinions about the political candidates and sometimes those opinions differ, but it is a wise person who can listen to differing opinions and reflect on them to either support their original beliefs or perhaps change their perspective or at the very least, get them to ask more questions.
In my household growing up, my parents were generally a-political. There were no discussions of politics at our dinner table. But if I were to venture a guess, my parents voted Democratic based on the fact that they were both NYC teachers and belonged to the teacher’s union. It is usually the Democratic ticket that supported the rights of unions and that was important to them. At my dinner table now, we get a lot of rhetoric from the political Right since my husband is a small business owner and feels that “Big Government” is bad for the economy. I think it is important for our kids to hear differing views of the political scene so they can try to formulate what is important to them. Helping our children understand the underlying philosophies of our two major political parties is the first step in giving them guidance about where their allegiances may lie one day. When information is presented in a non-biased way, it is fascinating to watch the reactions on the kids’ faces as they ponder what seems like the best course of action for a particular situation. The more questions they ask, the more likely they are to be formulating their own opinions based on the information with which you’ve provided them. I feel strongly that the most important bit of information we can give our children is the idea put forth by George Jean Nathan, “Bad officials are elected by good citizens who do not vote.” So be a good role model for your children; discuss politics in an unbiased way, have the older ones tune into the debates (the first one is today!) and encourage them to ask questions about what the candidates are sharing if they seem confused and of course, get out there and vote.
