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?
