Shirlee Smith | Not Too Young to be Political

Your kids, the young ones, get to vote – well, sort of. If they’re the size to reach the practice voting machine and if they’ve got the strength to punch the ballot card with the little gadget, AND if you take ’em with you to polls, they’re well on their way to becoming responsible citizens.

All of those irritating mailers flooding our mailboxes can be turned into teaching tools. Not that the message on any of them tells a story to be relied on; but they can be used to start a simple age-appropriate conversation and can be used to build a new kind of vocabulary.

Most likely, words exposed to the household youngsters via the mailers won’t be used for communication with their age-similar friends.

But then, friend vocabulary is most likely a set of words parents haven’t got a definition for. Turnabout here is fair game.

Let’s not wait until the high school years when a civics class is where our kids learn about the process.

How many of the following are elusive terms in our household: Democrat, Republican, Independent, Progressive, Libertarian, Conservative?

Is there mystery surrounding State Senator, U.S. Senator, County Supervisor, State Assembly, U.S. Congress,?

Then there are ballot initiatives, voter registration, primary and general election, party conventions and election day.

Ah, election day, when the little ones get to vote on the practice machine which is not recommended for kids old enough not to be impressed with this exercise.

Oh, is there an app/a game teaching young household members about the political process?

Darn, my age is showing. I thought conversation, creative game-playing with words, mailers and a trip to the polling place with Mom or Dad could work wonders for the kids.

 

Shirlee Smith is a former Pasadena Star-News Opinion Columnist. She is a Los Angeles Press Club first place awardee and author of They’re Your Kids, Not Your Friends and the Spanish edition, “Son Tus Hijos, No Tus Amigos.”