Teaching civic responsibility

I've made it no secret that I'm a Ron Paul supporter, in fact, I am the official coordinator for the Nebraska Homeschool Coalition and I will be blogging on the Homeschoolers for Ron Paul website
but, regardless of who you support in the upcoming primaries, the bigger question is what are you teaching your children about our political system and their rights and responsibilities as and American citizen?

Here in our house, my husband and I have made a conscience effort to discuss each candidate with our older kids. We've asked them to read bios and records of each of the candidates, both Democrat and Republican. And, we've discussed the various issues in depth with our kids. We've been known to have a good, old fashioned political debate with them, as well.

I think our young teens need to see the different sides of each issue, and it's good for them to hear close family debating complex aspects of political issues in a friendly way. The kids not only learn that there are many different opinions, but also that people who love each other can discuss and debate politics without it becoming a story on the evening news. Who knows, the kids might see things in yet a different way and cast an interesting spin on the whole conversation.

When I was young, politics were not discussed. Both my parents voted, and my mom was particularly active, but she would never discuss her views, or opinions with the family. To this day I have no idea where her true political ideas are. So, from that, I learned that politics was something to be avoided, that political issues were very private and never to be shared or talked about.

And yet, how else to you broaden your depth of knowledge, your scope of understanding of other people's views? Good policy can only be achieved when you consider and respect the opinions of others and remember that someone with a different background is likely to have a very different, yet equally valid, take on the same topic.

We, as homeschooling parents, have the responsibility to teach our kids how to debate without insulting, how to analyze an issue, and most importantly to research and learn about the candidates and the issues before they cast their vote.