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Teaching political awareness
Jul. 23rd, 2004 11:50 pmI have relied on National Public Radio for my news for years, and listen to it in the car. It's been harder the last three or four years, though. I don't like to have the girls hear all of it. The news has been so awful that I've been continually snapping it off lately (Next up: the severed head of American killed a month ago by Iraqi insurgents discovered in freezer in Saudi Arabia raid). Today I was trying to explain the bill the House of Representatives passed yesterday banning federal courts and the US Supreme Court from deciding whether a state must recognize same-sex unions legalized elsewhere. We went over the structure of the three branches of government again, and I tried to explain how this was a bill, not a law because the Senate hadn't voted on a companion action--and doubtless wouldn't--and how the checks and balance system worked, and why this bill would probably be declared unconstitutional if it became law. Delia was obviously out of her depth.
Fiona followed the explanation a little more easily. "Well, that's stupid," Fiona said.
I stopped her, because this something that I've been talking about with her a bit lately. I have passed on my political opinions to my children, but I have been realizing that they have simply been parroting my opinions back to me without really doing any analysis of their own. "Listen, Fiona, you're saying what you've heard me say, but you have to realize that there are mothers and fathers all over this country right now teaching their children that gay civil rights are wicked and wrong. And those children are right now telling their moms and dads that it's stupid for gays to want to marry, and I'm sure that their mommies and daddies are nodding their heads and agreeing."
"Well, it is stupid," she said.
Privately, I had to agree, but I went on doggedly: "You have to understand, honey, that there are many, many people who disagree with me. So you shouldn't just swallow my opinions undigested. I want you to learn how to listen to and read the news, and to think about it, and to form your own opinions. You have to realize that there are people all over this country who strongly disagree with each other on all matters of political topics. But it's all one country, so it's important that we learn how to work together. Like on the topic of abortion for example: I'm pro-choice, but there are people out there who are pro-life. But both of these sides on the abortion issue can agree that it's important to help people adopt children, to give children without parents a home, and to give couples who can't have a child biologically the chance to raise a child in a loving family." I glanced back at the two of them in the rear view mirror, staring back at me, their little snub noses sunburned, hair tangled from just coming out of the swimming pool. "You need to know that it's hard to work with others who disagree with you if you start with the assumption that they believe what they believe only because they're stupid. That's not going to win you any listeners."
"I want you to grow up to be good citizens who understand the part you have in helping run this country. To do that, you have to start to be informed. You may end up with very different opinions than your mommy and daddy someday" (here I winced, picturing them coming home at the age of 20 and telling us that really, the government doesn't have any business taxing people, and why do we need public schools anyway, when people would just be better off with vouchers, and honestly, shouldn't women be staying home with their children instead of working outside the home?). "I just want to know that whatever political opinions you eventually develop, you've thought them through carefully."
But how to do that? I wondered as I continued driving home. Both the paper and the radio contain such dreadful news; I don't want to overwhelm them. I thought about growing up myself, and how I came to learn about the world and develop political opinions. My family received Time when I was a kid, I realized, but we don't now since I generally read it at the office. Should I get a subscription of a news magazine or two for the girls to see? Sometimes the pictures are so damn grisly.
It's hard, trying to figure out how best to introduce the world, with all its terrors, and the messy process of governance, to my children.
Fiona followed the explanation a little more easily. "Well, that's stupid," Fiona said.
I stopped her, because this something that I've been talking about with her a bit lately. I have passed on my political opinions to my children, but I have been realizing that they have simply been parroting my opinions back to me without really doing any analysis of their own. "Listen, Fiona, you're saying what you've heard me say, but you have to realize that there are mothers and fathers all over this country right now teaching their children that gay civil rights are wicked and wrong. And those children are right now telling their moms and dads that it's stupid for gays to want to marry, and I'm sure that their mommies and daddies are nodding their heads and agreeing."
"Well, it is stupid," she said.
Privately, I had to agree, but I went on doggedly: "You have to understand, honey, that there are many, many people who disagree with me. So you shouldn't just swallow my opinions undigested. I want you to learn how to listen to and read the news, and to think about it, and to form your own opinions. You have to realize that there are people all over this country who strongly disagree with each other on all matters of political topics. But it's all one country, so it's important that we learn how to work together. Like on the topic of abortion for example: I'm pro-choice, but there are people out there who are pro-life. But both of these sides on the abortion issue can agree that it's important to help people adopt children, to give children without parents a home, and to give couples who can't have a child biologically the chance to raise a child in a loving family." I glanced back at the two of them in the rear view mirror, staring back at me, their little snub noses sunburned, hair tangled from just coming out of the swimming pool. "You need to know that it's hard to work with others who disagree with you if you start with the assumption that they believe what they believe only because they're stupid. That's not going to win you any listeners."
"I want you to grow up to be good citizens who understand the part you have in helping run this country. To do that, you have to start to be informed. You may end up with very different opinions than your mommy and daddy someday" (here I winced, picturing them coming home at the age of 20 and telling us that really, the government doesn't have any business taxing people, and why do we need public schools anyway, when people would just be better off with vouchers, and honestly, shouldn't women be staying home with their children instead of working outside the home?). "I just want to know that whatever political opinions you eventually develop, you've thought them through carefully."
But how to do that? I wondered as I continued driving home. Both the paper and the radio contain such dreadful news; I don't want to overwhelm them. I thought about growing up myself, and how I came to learn about the world and develop political opinions. My family received Time when I was a kid, I realized, but we don't now since I generally read it at the office. Should I get a subscription of a news magazine or two for the girls to see? Sometimes the pictures are so damn grisly.
It's hard, trying to figure out how best to introduce the world, with all its terrors, and the messy process of governance, to my children.