Editorial — Should parents ask their kids to take sides?
Photo posted on Facebook page Parents Actively Protest.
TUESDAY MORNING EDITORIAL — When should parents start involving their children in politics, especially the politics of protest?
At least some Kamloops parents are joining the dispute between teachers and the government today, and they’re asking their kids to protest alongside them.
These aren’t teenagers we’re talking about — parents around the province have taken to Facebook urging each other to bring their children, apparently as young as Kindergarten age, to rallies outside the offices of government politicians. They’re also using their young school-age children as models for photos promoting the rallies.
Make no mistake about it, there’s no neutral ground here. While the rallies are ostensibly a protest against the fact school isn’t starting on time, there’s definitely an anti-government tone to the discussion.
One parent comments that “I whole-heartedly support the teachers in this dispute and would love to be a voice for the children in ending this dispute.”
A proposed sample letter posted on Facebook, with a call for parents to print it and gather signatures, clearly sides with teachers. The lengthy letter talks of class size and composition, the cornerstones of the B.C. Teachers Federation’s demands from government.
“We demand that government lift the stumbling block to mediation which is that teachers sign away what they won (in) the courts,” the letter concludes.
So, when parents take to the streets today, will they be using the presence of their kids — many or most of whom can have little understanding of the issues behind the failure of schools to open on time — for a political purpose? Sure seems like it.
Everybody has a right to take sides in a political issue, and this dispute certainly has become political. And, the frustration of parents over the shutdown of the school system is understandable.
But while kids are deeply affected by the situation, maybe a protest rally isn’t the best place for them, at least not the younger ones.
ArmchairMayor.ca 
Honestly, the fact that kids are participating in protests organized by their parents is among the least of my ethical concerns right now. I have a bigger issue with the BC govt trying to bust the union by allowing the strike to go on. In my opinion, they’ve dug themselves into a hole by stating that they will neither raise taxes nor incurr a deficit. And by not acting in any way, they’ve dragged everybody down with them. Sometimes you have to deal with reality as it is and not as you want it to be.
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I, also, think it is wrong to take the kids to these rallies…….the same way I think it is wrong for the teachers to talk about their politics in the classroom/
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I don’t think the teachers should be able to talk about their politics in front of their students in the classroom and I don’t think that parents should bring their children to political rallies. The children aren’t old enough to form their own opinions and are too easily swayed by what the person in power thinks and it is not fair to them.
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I agree, I was downtown earlier and saw little kids who probably could not even read what it said on the placards they were holding! I am sure that parents think that because this is about education, kids should join in. Maybe older children could, but again, they need to have an opinion of their own, not one that they heard mum and dad voice.
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