The Three Biggest Lessons for Our Kids from the 2016 Election

Today I was a guest reader in my son’s Kindergarten class and it was an awesome experience.  He was so excited to show me around his classroom introduce me to all of his friends.  I read stories, encouraged them to share their thoughts with me, and was impressed by their curiosity and kindness.

I left there with the biggest smile on my face and I felt amazing… until I turned on my radio and checked my social media feeds.  The constant negativity from the news made it really difficult to stay in the happy bubble created by the innocent little faces in Ian’s class.

Since I didn’t want the latest issues with the campaign to ruin my day, I decided to look at it from the perspective of my new friends.  I asked myself what good things there might be to learn from this historic election.

Clearly, the political issues and the details of the candidates are too specific to be relevant, especially since it will be a long time until the kids can vote.  I also realize that I have so many friends, loved ones and acquaintances who feel very passionately about their candidate or who feel very passionately opposed to another candidate, so I know that the big picture lessons for future generations can’t focus completely on Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton without being biased.

After thinking about my son and all of my former students, I concluded that there are three very important lessons that we can and should teach students of all ages.

1. The Respect Rule – The Respect Rule has always been my main rule as a teacher because it basically encompasses all other rules.  I always made sure to let my students know that I expected them to respect themselves, each other, and me and that I promised to respect them in return.  I know it seems simple and obvious, but it was powerful and helped to create a great classroom environment.

Based on the interactions I see on just about every single post, meme, video, or article about the election, the Respect Rule really needs to be explained and implemented on a large scale.  As much as I know I shouldn’t be, I’m shocked at how many people are experiencing problems in their personal and professional relationships because of political opinions.  I am even more shocked at the disrespectful way people from all parties speak to and about one another.  Since the candidates themselves don’t always use the Respect Rule, it makes sense that their followers disregard it, but I have a lot of hope that the future generations will master this important lesson if we show them that it is possible to disagree with someone without attacking them and that they don’t have to take it personally if someone ever questions their thoughts or beliefs.  

2. Digital Literacy – After studying the role of technology in education for many years and working closely with students and teachers to integrate technology tools, I can see a lot of teachable moments in regard to digital literacy. 

According to Paul Gilster, “Digital literacy is the ability to understand information and – more important – to evaluate and integrate information in multiple formats that the computer can deliver.  Being able to evaluate and interpret information is critical […] you can’t understand information you find on the Internet without evaluating its sources and placing it in context.”

Since we have an unfathomable amount of information coming at us from all angles, it becomes imperative that we know how to evaluate and interpret that information in context so we can be informed about the candidates and the issues.  Even with a background in literacy and digital literacy, I have been struggling with determining bias and propaganda during this election because everything is biased.  I don’t mean that in a judgmental way, I mean it quite literally – all of the political posts that are being shared online right now serve a purpose and most have an agenda.  Therefore the teachable moment has to do with evaluating sources for credibility, accuracy, and context.  Our kids need to be taught how to think critically about digital information and how to determine the validity and reliability of that information because it is through their understanding of the information that they will be able to champion the most important causes.  Just like the Respect Rule, I wish there was a way to teach Digital Literacy to the masses in real time, but if we make sure all of the kids understand it, we can look forward to more intelligent elections in the future.

3. The Electoral Process – Last but not least, the actual process of the election is incredibly teachable right now.  I remember thinking that American Government was kind of boring in high school and I didn’t really retain much of the information that I memorized.  Unfortunately, it seems that a large portion of our population misplaced that information as well and most of them weren’t as lucky as I was to co-teach with some brilliant and engaging Social Studies teachers.  Thanks to my colleagues in the history department, I re-learned and retained the basic election procedures back in 2008, but it has taken some really shocking events during the current election to get the masses to begin understanding things like closed primaries and the Electoral College.  In that regard, we can actually be grateful for some of the shenanigans because they woke people up and made them pay attention to how things work.  Ultimately, there is still a considerable portion of our population that isn’t registered to vote and who don’t even understand how a president gets elected and that is just as alarming as people who ruin personal relationships and people who perpetuate the viral spreading of misinformation. 

My husband and I have had many conversations with our little guy about the election because he has questions about the things he sees on TV and the things he hears from other people.  He knows that Mommy and Daddy have different political views and that we love and respect each other anyway, but we still have a lot more to teach him before he earns the right to vote.   By then, he will be out of high school and he might not even remember who Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are, but I hope that he and his friends are respectful, digitally literate, and knowledgeable about how our government actually works.

What positive lessons are you teaching your children or students?  Share this blog, leave me a comment on Facebook, and help keep this conversation going!