How do you teach children about politics? Our approach was always that, for the time being, you don't. They're forced to learn too much too soon already, and there's no point in going through the motions if they don't understand the issues. So Matty's never been to any protests before... until the powers that be decided it's a good idea to teach six year-olds about the magnificence of the Communist Party.
So we tried to explain to Matty in the simplest way what the whole hubbub about National Education was all about. But where do you start with a four year old who has no idea what a government is? much less what a nation is, really? So my hubby took the liberty to use a more familiar metaphor:
DADA: "Many people are unhappy because CY
Leung wants teachers to teach children
only good things about China.
MATTY: *blank look*
DADA: "What would you do if the teacher only tells you the good things about drinking orange
juice? that it has a lot of vitamin C, and it's good for you, but doesn't tell you any of the
bad things, like if you drink too much it might make you cough? Is that good?"
MATTY: "No."
DADA: "So if you really want to understand something you need to know both the good things
and the bad things... Just like if you want to learn about China. If you only know the
good things it can even harm you."
MATTY: "I want to go to the protest!!"
He did seem to understand some of the principles behind it, and he had a lot of fun anyway, seeing something he's never seen before and being in the middle of something he's never experienced before. There'll be a lot of time for him to grow and develop his own ideas. But we don't think he'll ever forget his first protest -- especially since the moment was immortalized by an AFP photographer, and the picture was published on an NBC blog and in a local newspaper as well... I guess his chances of becoming a top official may be over.
