It was 1976 and Jimmy Carter had won the presidency. As a fourth grader all I knew of the election is what I heard at home from my parents and anchors like Walter Cronkite and Harry Reasoner. The other day I came across my childhood diary. On the page dated November 3rd, 1976, I had drawn a smiling peanut waving an American flag (Jimmy Carter) and wrote, “Well now the Bicentennial and election are over. On TV I heard more people hope it will be a good year now that Carter is president. I was hoping Ford would beat Carter.”
During this past political season nearly everyone had candidates they felt strongly for or against. Even young children had opinions. My friend’s six-year-old was heard saying about a candidate, “I hate ______ because they’re so stupid!”
How did this six-year-old come to this conclusion? Most likely his opinion reflected the thoughts of one of his parents or friends. Therefore, it was not really his own opinion.
Christopher Ojeda, a researcher at Stanford, conducted a study which looked at what factors led children to hold certain political beliefs. For instance, conventional wisdom holds that the higher the level of political discussion in the household, the more that those political beliefs get transmitted from parent to child. What Ojeda found was more nuanced: Discussion helped children understand their parents’ beliefs, but didn’t necessarily lead to adoption. “We found that discussion could lead to consensus as much as it could lead to conflict,” Ojeda said. (Rachel E. Gross, Slate 2015).
Parents should choose a set of desirable beliefs and relevant information that they want to transfer to their children, even about politics. This can be done when the child asks for information or when the parent feels it is an important topic for the child to be informed. For example, a child may ask who Politician X is or you may want your child to have age-appropriate information about an issue, politician or candidate. Rather than saying, “He/she is an idiot who will cause your dad to lose his job,” it can be a teachable moment to impart age-appropriate, relevant information. Ask the child what they already know about the given politician or concern they may have. Then, fill in relevant information you want them to know such as, “He/she is running for president to be the leader of our country. We like candidate X because he/she has ideas that will be good for everyone.”
When a child is young they simply adopt the values of their parents and the prevailing values of society. Parents who express strong positive or negative feelings about issues risk indoctrinating their children rather than educating them with information that allows them to understand the parent’s justification for their opinion. Studies have shown parents who are insistent their children adopt their political views inadvertently influence their children to abandon the belief once they leave home. The goal should be to help children become aware of their developing beliefs and have the skills to compare them to those of others they hold in high esteem. It is hoped that, as this awareness increases over time, children will modify weaker values/beliefs while, at the same time, hold more confidently values/beliefs that stand the test of careful thought and comparison. If a child is raised in a creative and accepting environment, where ideas are discussed openly, the reasoning process of the child will surely reflect that experience, no matter who wins the elections.
[…] they will say, “Absolutely”. Yet, parents expect that their children will hold their same values when it comes to politics, religion, and general philosophy. Certainly, parents who have children […]