As the mother of a primary school student, I’ve been thinking a lot this week about the death of 9-year-old Christina Taylor Green at a political event in Tucson, Arizona. Christina was only a year older than my son, but unlike him, she had already taken a strong interest in how democracy works.
In remarks memorializing the victims of the January 8 shootings, President Obama described Christina as “a young girl who was just becoming aware of our democracy; just beginning to understand the obligations of citizenship; just starting to glimpse the fact that some day she, too, might play a part in shaping her nation’s future.” Christina had been elected to her student council and saw public service “as something exciting and hopeful,” he said; she had been at Representative Gabrielle Giffords’ “Congress on Your Corner” event, where she was shot, to meet the congresswoman — someone she thought might be a role model.
Hearing about some of the things Christina did in her short life has given me food for thought. I don’t remember caring about political issues when I was Christina’s age, and I haven’t seen any such interest in my son, despite occasional events to engage him. Last October, for example, when my husband and I took our son to Comedy Central’s humorous yet politically themed “Rally to Restore Sanity” (jokingly billed as the “March of a Million Moderates”) my son occupied himself throughout the event by eating snacks and playing with a hand-held gaming system.
At the time, I figured that my son was too young to understand the significance of or care about what was going on. But now, hearing about Christina, I’m not so sure.
My son has been learning about elections, the Constitution and other civic issues in school, but perhaps my husband and I should do more to reinforce those lessons at home. Perhaps I should try harder to engage my son’s interest in local and national issues; perhaps I should even try to spark some activism. I know children my son’s age have been involved in petitions, for example, and my son and I have had discussions about slavery. Are there other good ways to teach the next generation about democracy?
The true meaning of democracy is what one acquires by its own natural interest to become through one’s inherent state of freedom. In that, come parental love, environments, health and education and character building as one goes through life under protection, right from the state of childhood to maturity and for work finally in the circles of democracy that has quality life to offer as in America standing by morals of democracy today.
So the system of democratic functioning that is sensitively based with the utmost care in functioning ways remains integrated for individual’s growth in becoming and at the same time for earnings with statuses or without statuses where disciplined sense of character that is basic comes into the play without a high or low because everything of its pulse comes to be held for aid and boost with a personal touch at all levels including by the President of the country in terms of humanity as seen in American Democracy of a personal human touch.
The question as asked is “are there other good ways to teach the next generation about democracy?” And my answer to that is “Democracy of its natural instinct evolves in a set up of circles that are of morals and if there is anything of immoral running out of those circles – well that is where minds should be with their teaching moments to arrest such an element or where unhealthy scenes on food for health are seen coming in to create imbalance of the bodies of life, those obviously should be monitored for something better based on taste along with exercises”. – Nothing new in that because the broader meaning of democracy is “good and healthy psyche that productively delivers practically on anything evil by its nature seen”. One can generally point many faults in others on either this or that for arguments and all those become part of the game in democracies because no two are identical in their nature of functioning despite the fact that their ways meet in material/spiritual terms with acknowledgements and greetings and even sharing.
In terms of jobs and adaptation at matured or growingly matured levels or where two or more democracies meet likewise sharing, the same element comes into the play.
Democracy is just not politics. Democracy projects right into Higher Power and beyond and therefore should be reckoned as a healthy element of its latency in all.
Ravi.
5.09 PM
New Delhi
19.1.11
Here’s a suggestion..be involved yourself in local activities and take your child along…and for god’s sake if you want your kid to be interested in the world around him take the da*n toy out of his hand!