Election years provide many “teachable moments” for children. In 2006 my three-year-old loved coming with me to deliver yard signs. We talked about how some people like to tell everyone in the neighborhood who they are voting for, while other people like to keep that a secret. For weeks he would comment on yard signs as we drove around town. “Mommy, that person is also voting for Chet Culver!”
In 2008 both of our kids experienced the unbearable stuffiness of our precinct caucus, and while they didn’t know the campaign issues, they did understand that people standing in different corners were supporting different candidates. They also understood the goal of getting as many people as possible to stand in your group. Many of my neighbors also brought children to the caucus, and I vividly remember one family whose seven-year-old daughter wore a Hillary button and nine-year-old son wore an Obama sticker even as their mom and dad caucused for Biden and Dodd (then Edwards after realignment).
During the 2008 general election campaign, my five-year-old son got a real-world dose of pluralism when he asked his favorite baby-sitter who she was voting for, and she answered McCain. I still laugh when I remember his follow-up question: “But who are you voting for for president?” It didn’t take him long to understand that yes, Mommy and Daddy were still voting for Barack Obama, but his baby-sitter was voting for John McCain.
I’ve decided to start a diary series about the political lessons my kids learn during this year’s campaign. My first big teaching opportunity of the 2010 election happened a few weeks ago…
I was watching the replay of the second Republican gubernatorial debate on Iowa Public Television. My kids wanted to know who these people were, so I explained they were trying to be elected governor. My older son, now seven, asked who we were supporting. I said we will vote for Chet Culver again, but these three men are competing against each other first, and whoever wins is the person who will run against Culver in the fall. My son seemed to grasp this concept fairly easily.
Younger brother, now four and a half, had more questions. He wanted to know who was going to win the election. I tried to explain that we don’t know who’s going to win yet. It’s either going to be Chet Culver, or it’s going to be one of these three men on tv. What if they don’t win, he wanted to know. Then Culver will win, I said. What if they don’t win and Chet Culver doesn’t win, he wanted to know. That’s not going to happen–either Culver will win, or one of these guys will win. But what if these guys don’t win AND Chet Culver doesn’t win? That won’t happen, honey. Either Culver will get to keep being governor for another four years, or one of these guys will win.
Now my four-year-old was getting annoyed. Probably he was wondering why Mommy didn’t understand his simple question. But what if these guys do not win AND Chet Culver does not win? After the third or fourth time around this merry-go-round, I realized this wasn’t worth arguing about, so I told him I didn’t know what would happen.
Conclusion: my son is either an out-of-the-box thinker and future third-party agitator, or he’s a bit too young to understand how elections work.
This thread is for sharing your own political memories or lessons you’ve taught children or students.
7 Comments
Nah, your youngest is just Cymru....
and an Anarchist.
For decades the Roman legions tried to convince the Cymru that Caeser was their new king.
The classic response to this by the Cymru was, and I quote;
“But I thought we are an anarcho-syndicalist collective. What’s a “king” anyway?”
After explaining to the Cymru what being Caeser was all about, the usual response was,
“What, but ultimate political power lies in the hands of the masses, and can’t be concentrated in one individual.”
Finally, the Romans simply gave up, and left the Cymru unconquered. True story.
That youngster of yours has potential. I’ll have to take him under my wing.
eltondavis Tue 1 Jun 3:19 PM
During the 2008 election,
one of the hardest things for my son (now eight) to understand was the length of the election season and the large number of election contests. He was wondering how many times Obama needed to win in order to become president.
During 2007 with campaigning in full swing in Iowa, my son did learn to recognize all the major candidates on both sides. He was very interested to know if the candidates were “good” or “bad”. I used thumb symbols to indicate how I felt about the different candidates. Thumbs up for Obama and most other Democrats, thumbs down for R’s. McCain was the only R who earned a more or less horizontal thumb.
The 2008 election did have significant symbolic meaning for my son. As he is biracial, we explained to him that his family is just like Obama’s family. In a very personal way, this aspect of the Obama presidency is a huge deal for me as well.
But a while ago we also learned the flip side of the Obama victory. We were talking at home that maybe his mom should be president, and my son said that was not possible because women couldn’t be president. – I guess the lesson here is, symbolism and breaking glass ceilings does matter.
rf Tue 1 Jun 8:44 PM
yes, the long primary season was confusing
I remember around March my son asking me if we were still for Edwards, and I explained that Edwards lost because he didn’t get enough votes. So my son wanted to know who we were for now, and I said we would vote for whoever won between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. A month, two months later I still couldn’t tell him for sure who we were voting for!
The little girl I mentioned in this post, who was wearing the Hillary button on caucus night, was upset that her mom wasn’t supporting “the girl president.” My neighbor was unable to explain her opposition to Hillary Clinton in terms that made any sense to her daughter.
desmoinesdem Tue 1 Jun 8:58 PM
Lessons learned...
We recently camped at Backbone State Park in Northeast Iowa which sparked a conversation with my sons about the CCC, the Great Depression, and FDR. After a lengthy explanation of the New Deal programs and how two of my uncles worked for both the CCC and the WPA and thus helped my grandparents’ save their farm, my eight-year old sagely observed, “Franklin Roosevelt must have been a Democrat.”
Indeed he was, my son.
urbandaleforobama Tue 1 Jun 8:49 PM
awesome
His mama didn’t raise no fool!
desmoinesdem Tue 1 Jun 8:56 PM
Our son learned
I don’t remember the year, but likely it was the Caucus of 1988 that we took our son along to our Democratic Caucus in Bettendorf. He was just turning 18 within a couple/few weeks and right now I can’t remember if he got registered or not there at the caucus.
In any event, that night I was standing for Jesse Jackson (think the wife was standing for Dick Gephart) and the boy got to see some rather strong crowd mumbling and looks directed my way. In 1988 in our lily-white Bettendorf precinct it took some strong will to make that Jackson stand. There were 4 or 5 of us in the JJ ‘crowd’ and ultimately we allowed ourselves to be inducted into the Babbitt group to give them viability.
HAH! Not sure what the boy learned that night, but he graduated high school that year, went on to spend a career in the military, and today he’s a social-conservative Republican. Oh well.
conservative-demo Tue 1 Jun 10:30 PM
Children
My grandson is almost 18 years old. He’s the outspoken radical of the family. His Mom is always shocked and embarassed by his questions to people. (not so much, his Grandma, although he does sometimes ask some weird questions). He was laying in a hospital bed, waiting for a minor surgery. His Doctor was explaining the surgery to him, and said, “Any Questions?” My Grandson answered, “Yes, how do you feel about Socialized medicine?” (this was 2008). His Mom was horrified, but the doctor took about five minutes to explain his viewpoint (which was totally Republican, about how we would lose doctors, nobody would have care, wait for months for surgery, blah blah blah). But at least he answered.
this is the kid that gets in arguments in the lunch room over the Health Care Reform bill! He’s joining the military next year. So we will have another liberal kid in the army. lol
wahela Thu 3 Jun 10:25 AM