This administration is great at teaching our children what NOT to do.
In school we are taught to look up to our leaders. We are also taught to trust them. Whether we are discussing politics or media, the general consensus is that the people in charge have our best interests in mind.
Given that the first thing the Trump administration did was discredit the media, this is no longer true. Our children cannot be taught to look up to a president who doesn’t value the lives of Americans. They cannot grow up mistrusting everything they read, or following in the footsteps of greedy corporate CEOs whose only consideration is profit.
We have to teach our children to be better than us, and better than the world they grew up in. That being said, I think the Trump administration has a lot of things to teach our children, in terms of what NOT to do.
Compassion. The most basic trait we need to instill in our children is compassion for others. For instance, this administration rounds up and jails political refugees, then deports them back to their countries to be killed. This is the opposite of compassion. Instead, lets teach our children to value the differences in other people, and have compassion for those less fortunate.
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Respect for others. We may not always agree on everything, but we all deserve a base level of respect. This administration teaches our children that people who are different than us, don’t deserve respect, and aren’t our equals. We must teach our children that every human being with a beating heart was created equal, and no amount of money, social status, skin color, sexual orientation, or ethnicity can change that.
Social Responsibility. Now is not the time to sit idly by while the world falls apart. Now is the time to figure out how we can each have an individual impact in our own little way. This administration has literally sent unnamed federal agents into our cities to threaten the first amendment rights of protestors. We must teach our children to be socially responsible, stand up for what is right, even (and especially if) the people in power stand in their way. We have to teach them to speak up for those who can’t speak for themselves, and stand in solidarity with those who can.
Our society has devolved so much because of selfishness and greed. But children are not born greedy, they are taught, by growing up in a system that values wealth over human life.
As a mother I feel it is my job to raise my children to be better than that. I hope you feel the same way, because our children deserve a better world than this. Unfortunately, it is up to them, to create it.