Category Opinion Politics
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In a response to my recent post about Racism, the first poster, "Mike", provided a link to an article about a "social experiement" conducted by a student in her left-leaning school. Here's an excerpt:

Catherine Vogt, 14, is an Illinois 8th grader, the daughter of a liberal mom and a conservative dad. She wanted to conduct an experiment in political tolerance and diversity of opinion at her school in the liberal suburb of Oak Park.

She noticed that fellow students at Gwendolyn Brooks Middle School overwhelmingly supported Barack Obama for president. His campaign kept preaching "inclusion," and she decided to see how included she could be.

So just before the election, Catherine consulted with her history teacher, then bravely wore a unique T-shirt to school and recorded the comments of teachers and students in her journal. The T-shirt bore the simple yet quite subversive words drawn with a red marker: "McCain Girl."

"I was just really curious how they'd react to something that different, because a lot of people at my school wore Obama shirts and they are big Obama supporters," Catherine told us. "I just really wanted to see what their reaction would be."

Immediately, Catherine learned she was stupid for wearing a shirt with Republican John McCain's name. Not merely stupid. Very stupid.

"People were upset. But they started saying things, calling me very stupid, telling me my shirt was stupid and I shouldn't be wearing it," Catherine said.

Then it got worse.

Basically she learned that many students who supported Obama were extremely negative in their reactions to her shirt.

"Mike", the commenter on my blog, made a simple statement before the provided link - "And what is worse, we are passing it on to our kids..."

I understand his sentiment, but I do want to provide some more insight into the reactions during Catherine's social experiment. Let me give some background: I am the (proud) father of 5 lovely children - a girl who is now an adult (18), a 15yr old girl, a 12 yr old boy, a 11 yr old girl, and a 10 yr old boy. We raise our kids to be Unitarian. Unitarians teach children about the major religions in our country from an objective perspective: their history, culture, tenements of faith, sacrements, etc. We also teach our children to respect all religious faiths, and that each person should go down their own personal spiritual path to determine what is right for them. And we carry this into political discussions as well. You need to choose representatives who are representative of most of your beliefs and convictions, and that you'll never find a politician who holds ALL of your convictions, and so on.

So, even with all of this, and even with the best intentions and efforts of all parents to guide and mold them into productive and respectful adults, kids will still be kids. My personal experiencs has been this:

Most kids, and especially teenagers/young adults, tend to go to the extreme with thier beliefs and convictions, especially when publicly expressing these tenements.

This happens even under the best upbringing of parents - it is just how teens are wired. They are beginning to understand and form their own convictions, and as they do they usually have not matured enough to know how to express these newfound convictions without taking them to extremes, especially with peers. So, while Catherine learned a great deal from her social experiment, I believe that we have to take the reactions with a grain of salt, given how teens tend to (over)express their beliefs.

One of my daughters, Kelsey (now 15), has learned this first-hand as well. Kelsey is an atheist - she has given a great deal of thought to this, she has reflected on what she has learned about various religions during her "RE" (Religious Education) classes at church, and she has even attended her friends' churches when she was going down her own spiritual path.

Now, you need to also understand that Kelsey is an "adrenaline junky". She is an equestrian hunter/jumper as well as a barrel racer; she is a scuba diver; she has been to Europe 12 times, often exploring with friends to immerse herself in the culture. You get the idea. I'll let others who know Kelsey comment if the wish to do so. She is a brilliant young woman who is wise beyond her years.

Given all of this, here is an example of her own "social experiment". Now keep in mind we're in the heart of the "Bible Belt". She was in a particular class in middle school that was discussing religion (I think it was a social studies class). One day, when she knew they would discuss religions, she wore her FSM () shirt. She got many questions all day about the shirt (see? An adrenaline junkie!):

"What's that?"

"My deity - the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Praise Cheeses!"

(long pause why the questioner goes HUH? and trys to process that)

Then she explains what that is, and that really she's an atheist that doesn't want to see Creationism taught in Science classes.

Anyway, she discussed - in-depth and openly - about being an atheist, why she is, what she believes, what does she think of other religions such as the various flavors of Christianity, and so on. The usual questions. She answers them calmly and fully. But the cutest response she got was from a young man who has Asperger's Syndrome. He sat next to Kelsey in this particular class. At the beginning of the discussion about Kelsey and atheism, he hurredly raised his hand to ask a question. The teacher called on him, and he excitedly asked if he could move to a different seat. The teacher asked why, and he said it was because Kelsey was an atheist. The teacher said no. The young man then slid his desk as far away as possible from Kelsey, like he was scared he would "catch atheism". It was cute, and Kelsey and the teacher explained it to him more thoroughly after class so he would be more comfortable.

But overall, there were quite a few teens who made disparaging remarks to Kelsey. She even lost some friends because of this; and while this was disappointing to Kelsey, she told me she felt like those wouldn't be great friends to have in the long run if they couldn't accept her as she is.

I wanted to share this story for a couple of reasons. First, I wanted to explain about my overall experience with kids. Second, I wanted to show another instance where kids "overreacted" to a controversial incidence when they encountered it.

Kids, especially teens and young adults, are learning how to be adults. They are usually well on the way to building their belief and convictions as a foundation for who they will be as they mature; they also are experimenting with expressing those beliefs and tenements to their peers. However many of them have not learned how to guage the most "socially correct" level of stating their opinions, especially when engaging with others who do not share their beliefs or convictions. This is the time where they are exploring and learning how to interact and react, and this comes with age and maturity (usually ).

So yes, the responses that Catherine experienced were "over the top"; but this should be considered with the appropriate framework of understanding that these are teens, and the way they interact tends to be "over the top" in general.

What should happen, with guidance from parents and other leadership figures in their lives, is that these teens will mature and learn how to properly respond; and I believe that if Catherine were to perform versions of this social experiment at different points of her life, the response would be more appropriate the older she gets.

But this is my experience; I would love to hear yours.

Oh, and this will probably (hopefully ) be my last political/social post for a bit. Time to bet back to the "geek" side for a bit.

Rock