Arnold Dodge speculates here about what Donald Trump is teaching our children about adult behavior and character.
Donald Trump, as we know, is given to off the cuff remarks as a staple of his mien as a candidate. His speeches and interviews are freighted with exaggerations, insults, threats, lies, and wildly inaccurate pronouncements about domestic and international issues. While most adults have the ability to separate the wheat from the chaff in Trump’s remarks, children, by and large, do not. In fact, they are trusting of adults, especially those in positions of importance. Donald Trump, whether he knows it or not – or whether he cares at all – is making an impression on America’s youth.
The responsibility of the adult community to is to demonstrate, by our actions, how to conduct oneself in a civil society and how to be a contributing member. We have provided a laboratory for delivering that message – our public schools.
A mainstay of public school instruction is character development, which equips young people with the tools for getting along with others – whether at home, in the workplace or in the public square.
Another priority in schools emphasizes an appreciation for, and an interest in, the complexities of knowledge acquisition. Successful students understand that reading and research, i.e., doing your homework, informs your opinions and deepens your knowledge of subject matter.
Mr. Trump is woefully under-resourced in both areas.
Whether we like it or not, Trump’s comments and behaviors are being absorbed, either directly or indirectly, by our children. Many adults are nonplussed by Trump’s meteoric rise to the top of the Republican ticket. For the most part, adults have the skills and experience to navigate the choppy waters of politics. It is the effect downstream that is disturbing. Which begs the question: What are children learning about public behavior and thoughtful opinions from the incipient leader of the free world?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Don Rickles …
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He’s a far better role model than Hillary Clinton. Besides being a corrupt life, long politician, she’s a liar…can’t believe a word she says about anything. Simply unbelievable that Democrats would nominate her for President of the United States.
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And Trump is, what? A truth teller? Please.
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PSSST. They’re all liars.
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Scott,
I would vote for Willie Sutton over Donald Trump. He was a darn good bank robber. His crimes were in the open. He stole from the rich. Trump steals from everyone and denies that he did it.
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Scott: It seems that you support an egomaniac who has an obsessive preoccupation with himself and his self anointed greatness. Small man trump feels like he’s not appreciated for his vulgar speech and antisocial behavior. He’s loved by the KKK, tyrants and a few like you.
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Scott: How about purchasing Trump Vitamins with required urine test kits? Then, enroll in Trump University. Maybe you can work for trump and he might pay you .50 on the dollar because you did lousy work.
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Trump is a shameless demagogue; he will say anything that panders to his Neanderthal base that thrives on bigotry, chauvinism and xenophobia. Hillary will not be selecting far right wing ideologues to the Supreme Court.
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It is up to us as parents to make sure that our kids don’t get to have Trump as a role model, whether it’s turning off the TV/computer when he comes on or using his hatred as teachable moments.
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“What are children learning about public behavior and thoughtful opinions from the incipient* leader of the free world?”
Nothing. More likely than not the vast majority of kids don’t have a clue about Trump or Hillary, they are kids. Kids usually are concerned with kid things and adult stuff is just that adult stuff that can be easily ignored.
Quite an inane article in my view. Bring out the children (gee haven’t we seen that before with the charter school folks) to make your cause oh soooo righteous.
Gimme a break on that “article”.
*Incipient is not the right word to describe who or where Trump is in the process. Perhaps “a contending candidate for being a leader. . . ” or “the aspiring candidate to be leader. . . .”
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But don’t children watch their patents and absorb their views, their statements and their beliefs? Sure, kids ignore what doesn’t interest them, but for good or for bad, children are a captive audience as their “first” teachers are their parents. Kids want to please their parents and right or wrong, healthy or not, if the parents are enamored with Trump’s hateful, spiteful and biased stupidity across all aspects of human diversity, then the kids believe whatever their parents believe. The children bring these perspectives and beliefs with them; into my classroom, onto the school campus and into their interpersonal relationships and behavior. Trump is toxic for all ages, races, genders, socioeconomic situation or life experience which leaves people vulnerable to being manipulated into believing in a distorted reality of violence, prejudice, hate and a perception that every waking moment takes place in an “us versus them”, winner takes all, to the victor go the spoils. Trump says vote for me or be a loser! Vote for me and I will teach you to be safe by avoiding any person you don’t like! Vote for me and I will build walls, keep people not like us out and force the world to give us the respect America deserves! Kids absorb all of this at home and they take this with them where ever they go.
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“Nothing. More likely than not the vast majority of kids don’t have a clue about Trump or Hillary, they are kids. Kids usually are concerned with kid things and adult stuff is just that adult stuff that can be easily ignored.”
Maybe elsewhere in the US, but not so much where I live. Granted, we possibly (probably?) get inundated more than most of the rest of the country here so close to The Beltway, and with so many parents working for the Federal Government and affiliated entities, but both my 8th-grader and my 5th-grader have reported lively discussion about Trump (and Bernie!) during lunch (and in the case of the younger, recess as well), meaning NOT teacher-directed talk, but among and initiated by the kids themselves. Both my kids also go to schools with high FARMS rates, and with significant immigrant populations; the Black and Latino and Muslim kids in particular have a keen interest in what’s going on in this election cycle, and kids ARE being bullied eve in elementary school. The children hear their parents, they see bumper stickers and yard signs, they ask questions of parents and of each other. They may not have all the facts, certainly, but they do have the interest. Don’t sell the children of America short by dismissing them due to their youth.
Granted, the perspectives of these students is appropriate to their ages, but not so much less juvenile than much of the behavior we’ve seen from Trump himself.
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“A mainstay of public school instruction is character development…”
Donald Trump is not an alum of a public school.
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A “roll” model.
Rolling over the public good for D. Trump.
He is SCARY. Could he be worse than George W? If not a very close second.
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Trump should select Madelyn Albright as his V.P. She knows how to get the government, to work for the richest 0.1%. Reportedly, hedge funder, Paul Singer is her firm’s client. He’s known for Puerto Rico’s debt misery and, for charter school zeal. Madelyn is part of hedge funder Pete Peterson’s latest coalition to destroy Social Security and, she serves with David Koch, on the Aspen Institute Board, whose education programs are funded by Gates,
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How much ahead of Trump, does Madelyn Albright score, as a role model …. if she succeeds in destroying Social Security and achieving Paul Singer’s and Bill Gates’ goals?
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