One of Primerrily’s favorite mama+thinker+writers — Karol Markowicz — finds a silver lining around the past year’s (and continued) Covid cloud of chaos. In her op-ed, School chaos is why you should teach your kids the truth about politicians, she opens with:
“'Why is my school closed, Mommy?' asks the sweet fictional child who has stopped going to school for no apparent reason [so much for education being *essential*]. 'I haaaaaaaaate Zoom,' screams the real child rolling on the floor, while his teacher repeatedly asks little Sally to mute herself and little Billy to put his shirt back on.
. . . this remains a hard moment for parents and kids. While the media have published a slew of articles on how to talk to your kids about the election, racism and other tough topics, none has addressed how to help kids understand why school inexplicably opens and closes, on the whims of politicos. . .”
Well here’s the 4-point summary of Karol's “sample lesson plan” (cut from Primerrily cloth!), but surely you'll want to click here to read in full her wise and witty words:
1.) “Start by teaching your children not to love politicians. [Like celebrities, athletes, etc. — they don’t love you back.] ‘Mickey Mantle doesn’t care about you,’ Chazz Palminteri’s Sonny famously said in A Bronx Tale.”
2.) “Show your kids how to value competence more than anything else in leadership and to recognize incompetence when they see it.”
3.) “Point out the absurdity to your children. We have to laugh, because the horror of the situation — our kids deprived of schooling, while politicians pretend it’s no big deal — is too awful to contemplate too seriously. . . Finding the humor in the ridiculous is a good lesson, especially now.”
4.) “Teach perseverance and the importance of education. We have been through a tough year, and your kids know it. A lot has gone wrong for them specifically. Assure them it will be over soon. Comfort them. And remind them that school is important, even when their elected officials seem to behave as if it isn’t.”
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Can you think of some concrete examples to bring each of these lessons to life? Who do you and your kids look up to for his or her competence and leadership? Talk with your kids about how each of you decide to make the most meaning, learning, and fun during time away from school!
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