Patriotic Girls

Publication:The Colorado Springs Gazette;Date:Nov 1, 2008;Section:Parent;Page Number:72Election FEVER
Presidential campaign offers opportunity to expand kids’ political awareness and teach the responsibilities of citizenshipBy Kate Jonuska
It’s a subject that’s usually complex, often passionate and always controversial. It’s a topic that you probably don’t want your child to learn about on the street or from TV. No, we’re not talking about birds and bees, but something almost as volatile and important in your child’s social education: politics. In this election year, when the presidential campaign invades our daily lives, more families are finding political issues cropping up at home and are using that opportunity to broaden their kids’ political awareness. For many families, talking about politics and government is an important way to shape a child’s moral character and their perspective of the world. “It’s our personal belief that just as you pass down your faith, you should help inform your children’s political outlook, explain why we believe what we do,” says Cari Pemberton, mother of this month’s cover models Bethany Salgado, age 12, and Erin Pemberton, age 6. Pemberton has gone to great lengths to get her daughters involved during this historic election year — they attended a McCain-Palin event as a family — because she wants them to grow into passionate and informed citizens. “Don’t be lukewarm. Be passionate about something,” she says to her daughters. “Apathy is a huge problem in America. If people were as passionate about politics as they are about football, our country might be in better shape today.”