“This goes beyond the innocence of school children learning and forming their own thoughts and illustrates how people groom their children to carry their own beliefs before thinking for themselves.”
During a field trip to Washington, D.C., 200 eighth-graders from New Jersey were informed that they would be given the opportunity to take a photo with House Speaker Paul Ryan. While this would be an exciting moment for many young people on a field trip to our nation’s capital, around a hundred students decided not to participate.
According to reports, students were told the night before that they would be meeting Speaker Ryan. So naturally, many students likely contacted their parents with the news. One account that I came across stated that one student told his mother that he did not wish to participate in the photograph because he did not agree with Speaker Ryan’s policies and beliefs and that “he puts his party before his country.”
While I understand that eighth-graders today have so much more access to information than most of us did growing up, I highly doubt they are capable of grasping an understanding of politics to form an opinion that someone is putting party before country. That is definitely a very adult sentiment that is echoed across social media and various op-eds published to major media outlets.
I suspect the parents had something to do with the decision for the nearly 100 students who decided to forego appearing in a picture with Paul Ryan. The parent of the child with such strong convictions actually said she told him to sit the picture out. Then she took to social media to proclaim how proud she was over her son’s “decision” to snub the Speaker of the House, calling the move respectful.
This goes beyond the innocence of school children learning and forming their own thoughts and illustrates how people groom their children to carry their own beliefs before thinking for themselves. I was more concerned with new shoes and hanging out with my friends at that age. I also had no idea what politics entailed. The issue wasn’t discussed in my house, and when I asked about politics, I was told that people don’t talk about who they vote for and why. Of course, that was an older generation speaking.
I didn’t even know what party my family voted until I turned eighteen, which was two months before the presidential election of 2000. That year, I was a senior in high school taking a government class that outlined the differences between parties and beliefs. The teacher went in depth and encouraged those of us who were of age to get out and vote.
I can remember asking my mother for guidance as I prepared to hit the polls, to which she responded, “I can’t tell you how to vote. That’s something you will have to decide for yourself after your research.” Looking back on that, it’s hard for me to imagine myself holding beliefs that I didn’t fully understand for the sake of my family. It does more damage than good not allowing children to learn for themselves and think freely.
Of course this mother is proud—her son has successfully been ingrained with her beliefs and has taken action that means absolutely nothing to anyone. In fact, Speaker Ryan wasn’t even aware of this little protest and assumed all of the children he did meet with made up the entire class.
