Do You Evangelize Your Politics to Your Kids?
I wonder if anyone's evolved on this like I have.
Until a couple years back I considered it good parenting to be an "honest broker" when explaining political divisions with my kids: I'd present both sides as respectfully as I could, say which side I agreed with, and leave it at that. Now I consider it my duty as a parent to mold my kids into two informed, dyed-in-the-wool conservatives, and so I present political divisions as having correct and incorrect sides (at least on those issues that animate me). I'm still honest, but the mission is different.
Why the change? A) The threat to their future that is Obama B) Exposure to just how shamelessly our school system seeks to indoctrinate our kids in liberalism -- an effort that was particularly repulsive during Governor John Kasich's fight with the teachers unions here in Ohio last year. As Rush Limbaugh says, "I am equal time."
The results have been amazing: Our kids can now formulate conservative arguments as teenagers better than I could 10 years ago as a thirty-something.
Good parenting or brainwashing?
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Comments:
Jan '12
Re: Do You Evangelize Your Politics to Your Kids?
I don't have any children, but my parents did two things that I think are the most important jobs of any parent:
1) Taught me what was right and wrong and provided suitable motivation to do the things that were right.
2) Taught me how to tell right from wrong so when I left home I could keep on doing the right things.
What they taught me that made this possible was the importance of faith in God and a right relationship with him.
May '10
Re: Do You Evangelize Your Politics to Your Kids?
Mitt's plan is working...(rubs hands gleefully)
Edited on August 30, 2012 at 10:21pmNov '11
Re: Do You Evangelize Your Politics to Your Kids?
To my nieces/nephews...it's part of my duty toward them as Godmother to several of them, it seems to me...
Dec '11
Re: Do You Evangelize Your Politics to Your Kids?
Good parenting or brainwashing?
I'd describe it as sense and sensibility.
Oct '10
Re: Do You Evangelize Your Politics to Your Kids?
My parents focused more on values than politics. Part of it was how right-wing extreme all of us were as children, I'm sure. We were always Republicans, though I suspect my parents may have voted for Clinton in his second election--but they certainly voted for Reagan and both Bush's.
I think they were wise to show restraint. Shockingly, Obama actually is a disaster for the country, but certainly Reagan, Clinton, and both Bushes were not. The sort of hatred you often see directed at American presidents has no place among children.
Edited on August 30, 2012 at 10:56pmSep '10
Re: Do You Evangelize Your Politics to Your Kids?
This is the best course. If you push too hard, they might rebel. If you give them the right tools, they will find the truth. We agree the Left is wrong. If we're right, your kids will agree too, eventually.
I was not especially influenced by propaganda in school, though there was some. Maybe it's worse now. With the tools of reason, and a little hint here and there from you, your kids will figure it out, Scott.
Dec '11
Re: Do You Evangelize Your Politics to Your Kids?
As did mine, but the ultimate influence- peer group pressure- is far more menacing now than when I grew up. This is one of the reasons I admire home-schoolers.
Oct '10
Re: Do You Evangelize Your Politics to Your Kids?
EThompson
As did mine, but the ultimate influence- peer group pressure- is far more menacing now than when I grew up. This is one of the reasons I admire home-schoolers. · 0 minutes ago
I admit. . they home-schooled me.
Sep '10
Re: Do You Evangelize Your Politics to Your Kids?
My kids just hear me and my wife discussing politics, and that's been enough to convince them.
Oh, and they go to a private Christian conservative school. Obama isn't popular there.
Re: Do You Evangelize Your Politics to Your Kids?
My view is that if you concentrate on raising thoughtful children with an analytical approach to politics and public policy, you will in fact be producing conservatives. I tell my children what I believe and why I think it is the correct view. I also tell them not to parrot me but to figure it out for themselves.
If you can easily enter a debate on either side of the question, then your command of the arguments is such that you can make an intelligent and informed decision for yourself.
Since leftism is above all the triumph of emotion over reason, this approach has worked well thus far for my two boys (ages 19 and 17).
May '10
Re: Do You Evangelize Your Politics to Your Kids?
My kids hear me listening to Rush. They hear my anti-democratic rants. They ask a lot of questions, which I try to answer honestly. Last night we took the two youngest (14 and 9) to see 2016. Its tendentiousness bothered me a little. I'm aware of not wanting to indoctrinate them in such a way that a reasonable argument in favor of liberalism will come as a shock to them later. I want them to know that there are good and decent people on the other side who see things differently. But I also want them to know that I see the current crisis as a crucial one--one that will affect their generation more than ours. We're going to have to fight hard to see truth and right win out.
Three of my babies will be voting Republican this year, two of them for the first time. (They've always been Republican. Now they're old enough to vote.)
Dec '10
Re: Do You Evangelize Your Politics to Your Kids?
You have no duty to present arguments counter to what you believe. If you did, that wouldn't make you a better parent.
I agree with your decision completely, and I've seen equivalent results with my own kids.
Aug '10
Re: Do You Evangelize Your Politics to Your Kids?
Scott, keep doing what you're doing.
Southern Pessimist bristles at "Parenting" and "Child Rearing," and I see why. I can imagine what S.P. makes of the term "Good Breeding!"
I like the French version of "good breeding," which is "la bonne éducation." To have good manners, savoir faire, and, yes, a good education, is to be "bien éduqué." In other words, all this stuff is taught.
It comes down to this. Children need to be taught nearly everything about life. If you've got the answer to something, be it politics, religion, or a mechanical skill, give your kids a head start and pass on the knowledge to them early. They'll have plenty of opportunity to question the debatable things later in life. But they'll always remember how you started them off.
By the very nature of your question I can tell that you're not treating your kids like a tyrant, so I'm not worried about that.
Apr '11
Re: Do You Evangelize Your Politics to Your Kids?
After listening to my polemics her whole life, I'd sum up the results through two of her comments:
"Daddy, why do I have to be the only conservative in my class?"
"I wish I could live in a world in which there was no such thing as an 'opinion'."
Edited on August 30, 2012 at 11:48pmMay '10
Re: Do You Evangelize Your Politics to Your Kids?
Thanks for the comments as always.
A bit of clarification: I'm not running a re-education camp or anything, and I'm never "in their faces". My presentation of the issues is always in the context that good people can disagree. But I'm just through pretending to see two sides to an issue if I know darn well, after years of study and thought, that one side is right and the other wrong.
And when they disagree with me-- which happens now and then -- I say "Hey fine, Bud, we disagree" and let it go.
And then later I come back to it and change their minds. :)
Apr '12
Re: Do You Evangelize Your Politics to Your Kids?
My position is to instill the principles of conservatism: Self reliance and responsibility, respect of others, hard work, patience and perseverance.
That said when we click by PBS and Bill Moyers is on I do make a point of telling my young son: "His brain is damaged so people just agree with his foolishness so as not to upset him too much."
Oct '10
Re: Do You Evangelize Your Politics to Your Kids?
My daughter is 2 months old. We listen to Ricochet podcasts together on a regular basis. I think that's sufficient for the time being.
Jan '11
Re: Do You Evangelize Your Politics to Your Kids?
Interestingly, my kids have a healthy skepticism of how issues "subject to political interpretation" are presented in schools. (I've repeatedly told them however that they must vote Conservative, even if the candidate is a goat with nice glasses.)
Apr '11
Re: Do You Evangelize Your Politics to Your Kids?
The right kind of brainwashing is good parenting. I started a conversation on this topic a while back. It didn't get the kind of traction that this thread has, but there were some interesting thoughts posted.
May '10
Re: Do You Evangelize Your Politics to Your Kids?
George Savage: My view is that if you concentrate on raising thoughtful children with an analytical approach to politics and public policy, you will in fact be producing conservatives.
Yes. With my kids, I'll always explain why I believe x or y to be so. It's never "x is so because Dad said so", such that imparting conservatism is also teaching skeptical, critical thinking.
We had a fun experience last year when my then-freshman son was in a debate class. He took the conservative side of every issue -- though he necessarily had to learn the liberal arguments to be prepared -- and went undefeated despite being one of the younger kids in the mixed-age class.
He won over the class on everything from the minimum wage to global warming alarmism, but most satisfying was when he flipped the class on the issue of Kasich's reforms -- to the displeasure and embarrassment of his militantly anti-Kasich teacher.