Why Mommy Is A Democrat

One of Dawkin's most controversial statements he's made is that forcing religion on children is a form of child abuse. While I don't agree with the extremity of his opinion, I agree with the spirit that it's inapproprite for children to be forced into labels like "Christian", or "atheist". And this doesn't just stop with religion. Labels like "Democrat" and "Republican" are also ones that have no business being forced upon children.

That's why it's books like this one that I find extremely disappointing.Aside from trying to indoctrinate children into a political ideology, it also reenforces some ridiculous false dualities. It implies that Republicans don't want to ensure the safety of the nation. Yet that's the largest platform they run on. The problem is that they just go overboard and begin suppressing constitutional rights to do so.

But ultimately, I think that the goals of all political parties are along the same lines. Both seek strong educational policies. NCLB, had the good intention of holding schools accountable. Unfortunately, it hasn't worked out and the powers that be are being too self-righteous to admit it. But that's not something that's limited to Republicans either.

The end result of all this is that I hold that teaching children ideologies in divisive manners is not productive to forming a healthy society. Instead, it just drives the wedge in further. That being said, I wouldn't call it child abuse like Dawkins would.

But there was one thing that Dawkins was right about. To illustrate how inappropriate it is to saddle children with labels, he showed a slide and told the audience to imagine the children pictured as political ideologies and consider how pisssed off it would make people. Boy is he right on that one.