On the way to school yesterday morning, I had the radio on. A caller from Kentucky mentioned that when parents go to the polls to vote, they can take their kids along and they get to participate in their own election.
They even get a real ballot and the kids’ votes are tallied. This gives them the opportunity to see who their peers are voting for.
My 13-year-old son spoke up and said that they are probably just going to vote for the same person as their parents. In other words, they are swayed by the influence of them.
This is very true. In fact, I remember the last time around when my daughter was in middle school, they held a mock election. It was obvious to my daughter that everyone’s votes were based on who their parents were rallying behind.
Of course, it’s true in my own home. All my children want the person my husband and I voted for to win.
Thankfully this time around, I can at least say that my 18-year-old’s viewpoints are truly his own. But I also attribute this to the conversations we have surrounding the candidates.
To me, it’s not enough to put down the other candidate and elevate the one of my choosing. This is the perfect opportunity to share with our kids why we are choosing a particular person for presidency.
What are the issues and values that guide our decisions? What are the positive and negative things we see in each choice?
This is a great learning opportunity for our kids. And we can also use this time to talk about the negativity of politics and how it so easily divides people. Instead of engaging in mudslinging, we can show better examples to our kids.
So this morning…some parents are happy and some aren’t. And guess what? The kids will have moved on. But what did they really learn?
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Photo by Dawn Endico in Flickr