From Carpool to Classroom: Youngsters Get Political

By Jan Goehring

There's new political interest and energy among young citizens. No, not young voters. We are talking about elementary children, too young to vote, but old enough to care. This election year has lots of people talking and kids are joining in.

As any parent knows, the carpool offers a sometimes unfiltered peek into the world of our children. And when the chatter turns to politics, things can get real interesting. Like this online article that amusingly and thoughtfully describes a political discussion among children in the car.  It includes thoughts about the differences between what Democrats and Republicans believe, including the all-important issue of their stance on unicorns.

It's amazing what our children hear and absorb. We can all get a good chuckle about the funny ways that kids view our world, but the author, Jenny Runkel, takes it a little further and suggests ways that parents can help develop political thought and discourse in their family. Her ideas include modeling calm political discussions on issues, allowing our kids to disagree with us and standing up for the right to disagree.

This carpool lesson mirrors some of the promising activities in elementary schools that are taking into account the energy around this year's election and preparing students for political participation. Take, for example, the fourth grade students at Erdenheim Elementary in Pennsylvania. As reported in the New York Times, the students engaged in a thoughtful and sometimes passionate discussion of the primary races. The issues the children care about? They talked about health care, the environment and Iraq. The students even cast votes for their favorite candidates.

“They know a lot more than they ever have. They know there’s a primary. I don’t ever remember talking about the primary in class before," according to their teacher Barbara Stefano.

And that is good news for the future of civic engagement.