Explaining politics to elementary age kids

[noexcuseforignorance]

You could explain things in generalities about how the political system works. There's no need to explain views of two parties. You could also explain that partisans are about as mature as an elementary child and I'm sure many of those children can write better posts than the emotion filled drivel you commonly see on here.

[Katarina Witt]

When my daughter was in 6th grade, they had to do a project for their social studies class which involved having a political discussion with their parents. She had a script of questions, such as "what do you think should be qualifications for elective office?". This is very basic stuff. I agree that teachers should not be teaching much of anything about partisan politics.

[jwm1964]

Originally Posted by Katzpur

A serious answer.
If you think that any non-sarcastic answer is a lie, you've got problems. There has to be an objective way to explain the American two-party system to young people. I would just appreciate some help here. If you have none to offer, then I'd suggest your finding a thread where you can contribute something meaningful.

That is a serious answer.
Elementary goes up to 6th grade in many schools.
These kids have the wherewithal to understand that people in power are lying to them and are hurting people in other countries.

We need to educate our children with truth, not indoctrinate them in our governments propoganda. If you don't think that is serious, I don't know what to tell you.

If you truly believe we have a two party system with different ideologies, you are just disseminating more disinformation.

[BigJon3475]

Originally Posted by Katzpur

If you were going to try to explain, say to a fourth, fifth, or sixth grader, the differences in Democratic and Republican ideologies -- not to persuade them to see one or the other of these as superior to the other, but merely to educate as to what the differences are, how would you go about doing so? In other words, if you were to say, "Republicans believe..." or "Democrats think...", how would you complete those sentences? If you want to include Libertarians in your answer, that would be fine, too. I'm looking for the most objective (and least sarcastic and biased) responses people can come up with. Thanks!

Yin-yang.

Neither one is more important than the other but both depend on each other in this magic carpet ride through space-time.

Then you could go further by saying you have males and females.

You have positive and negatives.

You have optimist and pessimist.

Conservative and liberals.

But everything continues to progress until the end.

In the beginning there was complete order and in the end there will be complete chaos and it only travels in one direction.

Good luck!

[Katzpur]

Originally Posted by jwm1964

We need to educate our children with truth, not indoctrinate them in our governments propoganda. If you don't think that is serious, I don't know what to tell you.

I do think it's serious.

If you truly believe we have a two party system with different ideologies, you are just disseminating more disinformation.

Well, I'm the one doing the asking, not the one disseminating information.

Actually, the reason I brought the subject up, is that I remember when I was in sixth grade. It was the Presidential election between Nixon and Kennedy. My parents were for Nixon. Since I lived in Utah, most of the kids' parents were Republican and were voting for Nixon. We had a mock election and, of course, Nixon won by a landslide. Then came the real election and Kennedy won. I was absolutely beside myself. How could the citizens of this country have done something so horrible as to elect a Democrat! In all honesty, I couldn't have told you one single solitary thing about what either Nixon or Kennedy stood for. I couldn't have defined Republicans and Democrats as anything other than "the good guys" and "the bad guys" respectively. And the only source of information I had was my parents, who weren't even all that gung ho politically. It wasn't until years later that I figured out that there were "good guys" who were Democrats and "bad guys" who were Republicans. I honestly wish I had had some unbiased (if there is such a thing) education about political ideologies long before I reached adulthood.

[BigJon3475]

Talk about the choice between the lesser of two evils...

[jwm1964]

Originally Posted by Katzpur

I do think it's serious.

Well, I'm the one doing the asking, not the one disseminating information.

Actually, the reason I brought the subject up, is that I remember when I was in sixth grade. It was the Presidential election between Nixon and Kennedy. My parents were for Nixon. Since I lived in Utah, most of the kids' parents were Republican and were voting for Nixon. We had a mock election and, of course, Nixon won by a landslide. Then came the real election and Kennedy won. I was absolutely beside myself. How could the citizens of this country have done something so horrible as to elect a Democrat! In all honesty, I couldn't have told you one single solitary thing about what either Nixon or Kennedy stood for. I couldn't have defined Republicans and Democrats as anything other than "the good guys" and "the bad guys" respectively. And the only source of information I had was my parents, who weren't even all that gung ho politically. It wasn't until years later that I figured out that there were "good guys" who were Democrats and "bad guys" who were Republicans. I honestly wish I had had some unbiased (if there is such a thing) education about political ideologies long before I reached adulthood.

Say Karen, Kathy and Josh started a club and so many people joined that they had to make some rules for the club to operate effectively.

Karen (President) became the Club President and defined what activities the club would participate in, this is often called setting the agenda.

Kathy (Representative) listened to the members and helped write up club rules for everyone to participate in a fair and equal manner.

Josh (Courts) listened to arguments when club members disagreed and helped resolve the differences.

Karen, Kathy and Josh's club is set up similar to the our goverment.

Karen acts as the President setting the agenda while she holds this office.

Kathy acts similar to our congress drafting "laws" to represent the interests of the members or constituents. Karen has to sign the rules for them to be effective however, or Kathy has to go back and try again.

Josh of course is the courts where he interprets how the "laws" or "club rules" will be implemented and allows members a forum to resolve disputes.

The three club positions balance eachother so no one position is more powerful than than the others and they all work to have a great club that offers benefits to it's members.

Have the kids take turns playing the different roles, with the President "setting the agenda", then let the group comes up with problems for the club officers to solve. Have the "Representative" interact with the members to come up with club rules and when they, as they will, disagree, allow the "court" to mediate the dispute.

The kids will probably have a ball and walk away understanding more about how our government is supposed to work than lecturing or reading assingments could provide.

Good Luck.

[Katarina Witt]

I, too, was in 6th grade during the 1960 election. I lived in a very conservative small Pittsburgh suburb, and we, too had a mock election which Nixon won. I don't remember what my feelings were on the matter. I know my dad hated Kennedy.

I don't think it's the schools' responsibility to teach the "differences" between the political parties. Too much would depend on the teachers' own biases, and if they had to teach from a lesson plan they disagreed with, it would come off as very insincere. Kids in 5th, 6th grade don't have the life experiences to understand many of the political differences. My experience with my own kids and their friends was that kids tend to parrot their parents' views until the early teens or so.