Too young for political warfare

DURING MY many years as a teacher, my mantra to parents was that they are their child's first - and best - teacher. I encouraged them to lead by example and to look for "teachable moments" that could help their child mature and develop.

But many parents are setting terrible examples for their children.

There's a growing trend in this country in which indoctrination is being disguised as education. Children, at home and in the classroom, are being used as pawns by grown-ups trying to advance their own political beliefs and agendas.

There are disturbing examples on both sides of the political fence. Recently, a YouTube video showed second-graders from the B. Bernice Young Elementary School in Burlington Township, N.J., who were directed by an unidentified teacher to sing a song praising President Obama.

Unfortunately, no one would ever compare the song's lyrics to those of Broadway's Leonard Bernstein. Instead of a song celebrating the new black president during Black History Month, the kids were taught a song whose lyrics covered policy matters like as equal pay and health care.

NO SECOND-grader could possibly grasp the meaning of those lyrics. But the only thing that seemed to upset school district officials about this whole matter was that it was posted on the Internet, generating lots of unwanted and unflattering publicity.

At Ted Kennedy's funeral, some of the Kennedy grandkids used the occasion to promote health-care reform. In Atlanta, middle-school kids at the Ron Clark Academy were on CNN recently singing a song about health-care reform set to the Miley Cyrus song "Party in the USA." Their lyrics said, "Obama says everyone needs health care now."

Why are kids being used to advance political agendas and policy positions? And it isn't as if this type of behavior isn't happening on the right side, too.

Rev. Fred Phelps out of Topeka, Kan., routinely has his young grandchildren carrying hateful signs attacking homosexuals at military funerals. I duked it out with his daughter over this on my radio show. She saw nothing wrong with it.

A pro-life caller to my show thought she had my approval for bringing her 8-year-old daughter to a rally in front of an abortion clinic. I've seen parents bring kids as young as 3 or 4 to the "Tea Parties," and have them carry signs that say things like "Stop stealing my future."

To all of these misguided grown-ups, I say: Stop stealing your children's childhoods.

These parents and educators aren't raising children - they're raising lemmings. Impressionable children are being turned into the "innocent civilians" in our political and cultural wars.

These kids are being thrown on the front lines of our national debates. And parents on the extreme right and left defend their actions.

One guy even called me to say that 8- and 10-year-olds should've been used to face down Bull Connor in the civil-rights struggles. Brave words when it's 40 years after the movement. I wonder if he'd have had the guts in 1963 to take his own children to Birmingham, Ala.?

I'm sorry, but there is no logical purpose in taking young kids to a political protest. Or an abortion clinic. Or indoctrinate them with political rhetoric under the guise of "classroom education."

Exposing them to these volatile and complicated issues at such a young and tender age only pushes them out of their childhoods faster.

And we've seen the problems of having kids grow up way too fast. Why would we want to accelerate that?

We also run the real risk of stunting their intellectual thought processes. Our goal as parents and society is to teach children to be critical thinkers and to think for themselves. Critical thinkers look at

an issue carefully and thoughtfully from all angles so that they can arrive at their own conclusions.

We should be striving to raise independent thinkers - not narrow-minded robots where diverse ideas and viewpoints are not tolerated.

Let's preserve the innocence of childhood and keep out the politics and the propaganda. It's hard to see what young kids are learning when they can't even spell the names of the issues, let alone understand them.

Teacher-turned-talk-show-host Dom Giordano is heard on WPHT/1210 AM.

Contact him at askdomg@aol.com.