POLITICS UPENDED…HELPING OUR "GREATS" UNDERSTAND AND MANAGE THIS CONFUSING WORLD.

With the recent elections, we noted that our “Greats” were confused, worried and questioning about the political noise that was surrounding them on the media, in their schools and at lunch and dinner conversations. 

The nastiness of the recent campaigns led to some citizens feeling that their votes didn't matter, and that their opinions weren’t being heard.  As grown-ups, we believe that “Voting Matters” and voting is one of the greatest privileges and duties we have as citizens of the United States. We also feel that if our votes are not heeded, we need to make our voices heard in other ways.

We wanted our “Greats” to feel that what they think and opine about the world around them is important.  We try to model and teach empathy; we try to reassure our youngest that they will be safe; we try to teach or preach that their friends and even those that may not be their friends are worth being protected and respected.

So, in that vein, we decided to start our “Greats” on a political path that requires some thinking, pondering, action and writing.  We did this in order to give them the feeling that they can make a difference by their actions; that they are not helpless in this political world in which we live.

We created and printed stationary with each child's name and address, plus envelopes with their return address.  On a separate page, we printed the names and addresses of each child's elected representative as follow:

·       Two Senators

·       One Congressional Representative

·       One State Senator

·       One State Assembly Person

·       One Mayor of the City

·       One County Supervisor

·       One City Council Person

·       One Governor of the State

We know this may sound overwhelming, but the idea is that if a child simply states his/her concern about an issue, and sends it to an elected official, it is more than likely they will receive a response, which we hope would be the beginning of the feeling that one opinion counts; that one vote counts.

This has been a very unusual year, but we hope that together, we can make our voices heard, not let the bullies beat us, and that Peace and Health surround you and your families.

June and Laurie

HOW KIDS LEARN PREJUDICE

We read this article and were so impressed, that we thought we would share it with you. Given the proliferation of hate speech and fear, it's important for you to share your values and outlook with your great-grandchildren. 

Before you read this important piece, let us share with you the perfect example of how children personalize what they hear. About a month ago, our almost 9 year old great-granddaughter, had this exchange with her parents after hearing Trump on TV..

"...she asked with a tear in her eye, "Why does Donald Trump hate me? He says such mean things about women. Does he really hate me, mommy, Savta, Nana, Abuela and June?" 

We encourage you to share this article with teachers,parents, child-care workers, and/or others involved with children.  This is so very important.

How Kids Learn Prejudice

By KATHERINE D. KINZLER*

FROM THE NY TIMES, OCT. 21, 2016

"Recently, my 2½-year-old daughter asked me about the Trump video everyone seemed to be talking about. Like many parents, I had made the mistake of assuming we were still in the soft and squishy baby days when she wasn’t listening. But now she is listening.
 

                 I told her that a man who would like to be president said some mean things that hurt a lot of people’s feelings. My daughter started to cry; like many children, she is sensitive. I hugged her and assured her that everything would be O.K.

                 But as a psychology professor who studies the development of social attitudes, I had to ask myself, will it really be O.K.?

                 At the second presidential debate, Hillary Clinton talked about the “Trump effect,” a rise — anecdotally, at least — in bullying in schools. Are children adopting the negative attitudes that Donald J. Trump’s campaign has too often promoted? Do they feel a newfound sense of permissibility in mocking people, as Mr. Trump has, based on their race, their religion, their gender or their disability?

                 It will take time for research on education to answer those questions fully. But past research from psychology suggests that a “Trump effect” on children’s attitudes is very likely real.

                 Children are cultural sponges: They absorb the mores that surround them — how to dress, what to eat, what to say. This is a good thing, all in all, since a major function of childhood is figuring out how to be a proficient adult in a particular society. This means picking up on social norms. Unfortunately, this includes learning your society’s explicit and implicit views of the status and worth of different social groups.

                 Developmental psychology research has shown that by the time they start kindergarten, children begin to show many of the same implicit racial attitudes that adults in our culture hold. Children have already learned to associate some groups with higher status, or more positive value, than others.

                 An association between status and group membership can be learned surprisingly quickly. The psychologists Kristin Shutts, Kristina R. Olson and Suzanne R. Horwitz recently demonstrated that in just a few minutes of exposure in a laboratory setting to information about fictional groups with differing socioeconomic status, children picked up on which groups were wealthier — and indicated that they liked those people better.

                 Gender attitudes, too, form early and can be influenced by subtle cultural cues. For instance, in experiments in preschool and elementary school classrooms, teachers were instructed to make a bigger deal of gender than they typically would. They treated girls and boys equally positively, but they highlighted that the two genders were different — for instance, boys and girls hung their art on different walls, and children were labeled often as being “boys” and “girls.” Note that the children were not taught anything explicit about gender stereotypes. Yet after a few weeks, they started to endorse broader stereotypes about gender. For example, they became more likely to think that boys, but not girls, should become scientists. It seems that merely marking a category — suggesting to children that it matters — led them to pick up on cultural stereotypes.

                 It is also important to consider that negative information is particularly compelling to children. For example, my colleagues and I have found that when children learn about people committing antisocial actions, they remember those actions in greater detail than they do with comparable positive actions. Talking about entire groups of people as being threatening or dangerous, as Mr. Trump has done, is precisely the kind of language that children are likely to internalize.

                 Now, all hope is not lost. Our country has made progress on many issues of social bias, and younger generations tend to be more open-minded and tolerant of different groups than older generations are. Research by the psychologists Melissa Ferguson, Thomas Mann and Jeremy Cone shows that with sufficient countervailing positive information, even initially negative implicit attitudes about people can be unlearned.

                 But we need to remember that what’s at stake in a Trump presidency is not just his policy choices, his approach to diplomacy and his having a finger on the nuclear trigger. Also at stake are the attitudes Mr. Trump’s discourse would transmit to a generation of children. Electing Hillary Clinton, in addition to offering a wholly different set of policy positions, will also help teach children that America is a place where little girls can grow up to be scientists, and maybe even president."

*Katherine D. Kinzler is an associate professor of psychology and human development at Cornell.