"How to Talk to Your Kids About the 2016 Election"

[IdaBriggs]

This is interesting from advice columnist Leanna Landsman; her focus is on education, with advocacy work for both teachers and parents.

http://www.uexpress.com/a-plus-advice-for-parents/2016/3/28/how-to-talk-to-your-kids

Q: My fifth-grade daughter's class has been watching presidential debates as homework. She is upset that candidates say things that would get kids into trouble if they said them in school. She's developing a cynical attitude that I want to counter. What's the best way?

A: In classrooms and living rooms, discussing the road to the White House should be a fun, every-four-year opportunity to teach civics, history and "why we value living our democracy," says Marissa Gehley, a youth counselor with deep experience in California school districts. "But lately, I've been getting calls from parents and teachers saying, 'How do I deal with the bullying and name calling and the hate we're seeing on TV?'"

(snip)

She acknowledges that kids have real questions, like "'Will my family have to leave our home? Will this or that candidate send my dad to war again? Will my aunt be hurt if she attends a rally?' Give kids a chance to ask their questions and discuss them honestly. Just having you listen can dispel a child's fear."

An Orlando, Florida, fifth-grade teacher wrote to me complaining that she "never expected to hear a question about a candidate's genitals in our social studies class."

(more at link)

I have been seeing similar stories from friends on my Facebook feed. (I have a very diverse set of friends all over the country due to my work with preemie and special needs issues.) This is so upsetting that we are even having to have these talks - leave our home? Go to war? Be hurt at a rally? But that is what the GOP has brought to the American public as acceptable discourse - a return to old hatreds.

My twins just turned 9 a few weeks ago, and just completed their 3rd grade Social Studies curriculum dealing with American values and patriotism. I now understand where I get my own idealism - "equality under the law" and "rights and responsibilities" were front and center in the textbook, along with some candid, age appropriate discussion of civil rights issues and Martin Luther King. These common sense values aren't even discussed by the Republicans.

I am truly convinced our politicians need to be able to pass a standard high school civics test before we let them run for office.

[qwlauren35]

1. I don't think she tackles the sound bites well.

Yes, it's good to turn the election into a civics lesson, but that doesn't calm fears about being forced out, or forced into war. It doesn't answer why penis comments are acceptable (although the word is not used, so maybe the younger kids won't get it...).

f you say "In our house we don't do that." Is that enough? I know that this is how parents deal with their kids seeing bad behavior among other children and strange adults in stores who go postal, but to see it among presidential candidates, people who might be POTUS, and worthy of our respect and allegiance... that's tough.

The show "Blackish" did a recent episode about what happens when police abuse power and are not held accountable under current laws and judicial system, what it means, especially to African-Americans, and what's an acceptable response. In the end, the parents and teens went down to protest, while the youngers stayed home with grandparents.

But we've seen that protesting is not safe at Trump rallies.

I think it's reasonable for parents to accept their teens deciding to protest. But I'm not sure what to do with the younger ones.