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Tips To Help Parents Raise Politically Engaged Children
In an election year when everyone of voting age faces a decision that could shape the fate of the nation, parents are presented with a great opportunity to ensure the next generation of voters knows the importance of being politically informed. Leadership expert Jamie Woolf offers some "best practices" from the business world that will help you raise politically aware children.
by Jamie Woolf
November 4, 2008
A
fter what has been a grueling election season, November 4th is finally here. The
history-making election is expected to bring people to the polls in record numbers. But it's
important to remember that too many people shirk their civic responsibility when elections roll
around. In fact, in 2004 only 56.7 percent of registered voters turned out. There is no better time
than this historic election to stress to your children the importance of being politically engaged
so that you can play a part in raising a more politically engaged American electorate.
There
has been a lot of hype around this year's election, because no matter who's elected, we will be
making history. That's why this is a great time to get your kids excited about voting and to
explain to them that being politically engaged and using their vote to speak their mind is a great
way to affect the world around them.
Remember, your kids look to you as their leader, and what you teach them now about being
politically engaged will influence how they behave as adults. Adopting business leadership
strategies will help you to raise more politically engaged children who are more attune to how
their decisions and beliefs affect the people and world around them.
Here are a few of her insights and suggestions:
Strategy 1: Research the competition and show why politics matters. In business,
you can't believe everything you hear. A leader may hear from someone in his department that an
employee isn't pulling his weight or that he's causing disruptions. The best leaders never take
these rumors at face value. They take the time to assess the strengths and weaknesses of each of
their employees and then form their own opinions about their performance levels.
The same skills that you use in your job to assess an employee or coworker's performance
level can be used to assess a candidate, and they are skills that are easy for your kids to grasp.
The most difficult thing to convey to your children with regard to the election is that they
can't believe everything they hear on TV or everything they read online. With so many negative ads
and false rumors floating around, you have to teach them to focus on the issues. Ask your kids
which issues they think are the most important. Teach them how to effectively gather information
about the candidates by reading newspaper articles together, watching debates as a family, talking
about political issues around the dinner table, and visiting the candidates' websites.
My daughter recently told me that she tried to explain the differences between the candidates
to a boy in her class who said there were none. It was a proud moment for me because I could see
that our political discussions at home had paid off and that she now had an excellent grasp of how
important the issues the candidates represent are to her and her classmates' lives.
Strategy 2: Guard against "momthink." We've probably all worked with a boss at one
point who tried his best to stifle any dissenting arguments against the way he or the company does
things. He wants to hear only from "yes men," and as a result it is very difficult for his company
or department to grow or change for the better.
The best leaders encourage disagreement so that the full range of issues gets out on
the table and so that solutions to problems can be approached in different ways. That said, being a
good Mom-in-Chief means not programming your kids to think like you.
Politics can be tricky. You
have to be careful that you aren't forcing your political opinions on your children when you are
engaging them in political conversations.
Political discussion should be used to teach them how to be independent thinkers rather
than simply plugging them into your 'momthink.' As a parent, it's your responsibility to show your
children how to respect dissenting points of view by listening, considering ideas different from
their own, and deepening their understanding of their own opinions. So, if your kids decide they
would also vote for your candidate of choice, ask them to assume the other point of view as a fun
way to foster critical thinking and guard against 'momthink.'"
Strategy 3: Take kids to the voting booth. I have a frustrated client at an
engineering and design firm who at one point believed many of his workers didn't see how their work
connected to the finished product. To remedy the problem, he decided to make a habit of getting his
employees out of the office to tour the buildings they had helped to build. After his employees saw
what resulted from their work, motivation and productivity in his firm soared.
A great way to help your kids make the connection that we as individual citizens can have a
huge impact on what happens in our country is to take them to the voting booth.
Visiting the polls provides you with a great opportunity to talk to your children about the
privilege of voting and the important role we play in the democratic process of our country. By
showing your enthusiasm about voting to your own kids, you can help reduce the apathy and cynicism
about the political process so widespread among youth in the U.S. today.
Strategy 4: Teach them how to respectfully debate. Too many adults enter the
business world without properly knowing how to debate their side of an issue. Too often arguments
that begin in a meeting or over a conference call end only with hurt feelings or two departments or
employees that are suddenly unwilling to work together.
That's why it is key that you teach your children how to remain respectful when debating an
issue. It's a skill that will benefit them as they go through school and also when they reach the
business world. A great way to teach your kids how to debate respectfully is by putting the
candidates themselves aside and looking only at the issues.
Have one child choose one side of an issue while their sibling or friend takes the opposing
side. Give them a few minutes to prepare and then let them participate in a mock debate with you as
the moderator. Play the devil's advocate to each child by bringing up aspects of their position
that they may not have considered and call them out if they ever stray from the issues and attack
their opponent in any way.
A friend of mine, upon hearing her kids 'Boo' a lawn sign with the candidate they (their
parents) weren't voting for, asked them what they didn't like about this candidate. Their response
was silence. She took the opportunity to talk with them about the importance of understanding the
views of each candidate and that booing the other candidate wasn't a sufficient or responsible
response to an opposing view. She taught them a lesson that every parent should teach, that you
haven't earned the right to respectfully disagree or debate an issue until you've considered both
sides.
Strategy 5: Talk, yes, but take action too. If you're leading a company or
department and there is a crisis brewing, do you sit in your office hoping that it will blow over?
No! You get to work on developing and enacting a plan to prevent the crisis or make its impact as
little as possible.
In the same way, if you believe strongly in a candidate or the political process in general,
it's important that you show your children that they can do more than simply voting to get
involved. I can remember stuffing envelopes with my mom from the time I was very young. Four years
ago, we had a party at our house filled with people calling registered voters, reminding them to
vote. My oldest was able to make calls then and asked if we could make calls again this year.
Because presidential elections happen only every four years, you can really create a lot of
excitement around them that your kids will be receptive to. A great way to do that is by throwing
an election night party and watching the election returns together. Doing this is a great way to
not only make them politically engaged but also politically active.
Ultimately this election season is a great time to teach your children how important it is
for them to be politically informed as citizens, but it's also an opportunity to do much more than
that.
So many of the skills they'll develop while learning about the candidates or debating the
issues will be invaluable to them later on in life. They'll be honing their critical thinking
skills, developing an open mind and an understanding of why people approach issues differently, and
they'll learn that there are productive and effective ways to express their views without resorting
to anger or violence. And, who knows...after all is said and done, you may find out you're raising
a new presidential hopeful.
About the Author
Jamie Woolf has over twenty years of experience consulting to business leaders. Based on her work inside dozens of organizations, Jamie lays out her "best practices" to enjoy more success at home and at work. She founded The Parent Leader to help mothers and fathers gain the self-awareness and leadership skills to transform their daily parenting challenges into desired results and co-founded Pinehurst Consulting, an organization development and training consulting firm. She blogs on mominchief.com. She serves on the Advisory Board of Working Mother Media. Jamie Woolf holds an M.S. in industrial/organizational psychology from San Francisco State University and a B.A. in psychology from the University of California, Santa Cruz. She lives in Oakland, California, with her husband and two daughters.
