It all started when I talked to my mom on the phone. She had called home earlier, but I wasn’t here. So instead she talked to my 14-year-old. My mom (just like myself) is a democrat and my 14-year-old is a republican. (Well as much of a republican as a 14-year-old who can’t vote can be.) I call him Alex P. Keaton. It’s a big funny joke because my son’s name is actually Keaton. And Alex P. Keaton was a huge young republican from Family Ties. Get it?

So anyway, my mom and my son had a big discussion about politics. I keep telling her he is just doing it to get her all ralled up. He tends to be kind of sarcastic (no clue where gets that from). When I got out of class and called her she was telling me about it. Then when I got home my son was telling me about it.

He and started to talk about why he was a republican and why I was a democrat. I was sort of testing him to see if he actually had any clue where McCain stood on any of the issues or if he was just getting sucked in to the republican propaganda. Somehow we got on to the discussion of Abraham Lincoln, how he was a republican and how he not only abolished slavery, but was the reason the Civil War started.

Since my 16-year-old is currently taking U.S. History in school, he joined in to the conversation. After a few minutes I stepped aside to help my 6-year-old write a letter to his sister (because they just learned about writing letters today in the 1st grade) and let my teens duke it out over the Civil War. They had a 30 minute conversation about the Civil War; talking about a few of the different battles and the key players. It was amazing.

So what’s the lesson here? Apparently I need to start sneaking in educational conversations so the kids don’t realize they are learning. Clearly I’m a genius.

Post from: Blisstree

Sneaking In An Education