I wrote some words on Medium about the election and trying to raise civically minded and responsible kids. TL;DR – it’s not easy.
When I was young, political news and 60 Minutes sparked an interest in journalism that carried me through college and into a career in media. In addition to a newspaper internship, I worked on two political campaigns, one of which sent our congressional candidate, Walter Capps, to Washington, D.C.
Now we watch the debates after the kids go to bed. Election news on TV is almost worse than watching late-90s Jerry Springer. After this last week I can’t even fathom watching the next debate on Oct. 19 with kids in the room. This does our kids a disservice. Hoping this election will just go away isn’t doing anything to make our kids more civically minded. Shielding them from the process isn’t doing anything to help them formulate their own opinions about issues and candidates.
