My kid is just about to start school. I’m currently living in California where the state-mandated curriculum is… not terrible in terms of historical and political education. But I’m also in a fairly reactionary part of California.
Given how expensive it is to live here and the relative geographic freedom my job has, I’ve been contemplating if we should stay here. Doing my best to set my kids up to be leftists is pretty much #1 on my list.
So where do you all think is a good place to raise your kids to help them grow up to be leftists - both generally or specifically?
Fwiw this is one area where I do think it’s better to be around “liberals” than reactionaries. At least with liberals you tend to not have history lessons about how slavery was good actually and your kids feel social pressure to go to the evangelical mega church that all their friends go to.
Or maybe literally none of this matters, everywhere in the US is basically the same and I should just be where I feel I can be the best parent?
Edit: I should mention, I’m white and my kid is white so I think being in a diverse place is important too, admittedly California is pretty decent in that regard.
My best advice to you is to do practical deschooling with your kids after school hours. Get them to share what they have learned, especially with regards to history and politics and deconstruct the liberal ideological trash while bringing in historical facts and countervailing political perspectives.
Also take the time to get your kid involved in learning about different cultures. If you're in certain parts of the US, take them to powwows for example. Actually get them to meet with indigenous people, as well as other marginalised groups, so they can develop an appreciation for humanity so that it can serve as a buffer to racism and bigotry. If your kid goes to a powwow on Sunday and then on Monday their teacher tells them "The native Americans used to live here in this very state!", playing that end of history bullshit liberal sleight of hand then your kids are gonna be like "Uh, nope. They're still here - I saw a bunch of them yesterday and you don't know wtf you're talking about." which is going to spare you a lot of effort in cognitively deconstructing the liberal narratives they get fed.
Follow @hungryrye on social media and see what they have to say about raising kids as leftists. There's gotta be more content creators out there doing this who you'd be able to draw inspiration from too.
Leaving an area just to get them a slightly better political education (something you should provide to begin with), and forcing them to leave behind their friends and (possibly) family is a sure fire way to get them to despise you, rebel later in life, and reject your worldview.
Instead, if you have the money, and your kids have decent enough grades, take a (half) year off and travel around or even find friends abroad which have kids of the same age who can become penpals.
Just make them worldly, and give them the political and historical consciousness required for them to draw the conclusions themselves.
forcing them to leave behind their friends and (possibly) family
I sometimes see people post things like this and fuck me dead, how good was your childhood that you think having to move around is a significant issue
just because other people have been through worse in their childhood doesn't mean that moving isn't legitimately upsetting and destabilizing for many children. It's not a competition
Before you use this comment thread as a trauma-dump
I posted in response to your hyperbolic statement about, I suspect, your own trauma:
[Relocation is a] sure fire way to get them to despise you, rebel later in life, and reject your worldview.
New York City greatest city in the world da big apple
Timothée Chalamet was born and raised in NYC, and he grew up to commit galactic genocide, so maybe not great for raising a leftist.
Realistically the only chance for leftist adjacent education (outside of boutique private schools) is in high school, and then only in advanced class.
Frankly, all us education avoids the kind of critical thinking that's actually an avenue to radical thought (especially since good writing requires, at the least, a flirtation with sophistry that would even piss some communists off. So instead we teach five paragraphs essays.
This is to say, I wouldn't worry about place so much as getting the kid (if they're able) an IB or AP school program.
Alternatively, make them work a year in fast food and then hand them Marx. Worked for me (though the pump was primed by an excellent history teacher in HS)
Not a parent but I would maybe consider leaving the country if that's feasible with your job, my sibling was telling me that the school board has been taken over by the most brain wormed white men on the planet, they currently have no science teacher for the middle school because they keep rejecting the curriculum that have evolution and climate change in them and held a special meeting because the welcome to school decorations had a balloon rainbow arch. This is also in California.
looking auckland's monthly averages i'd say NZ's the warm one and australia is the unbearably hot one
those labels are just someone's opinion. australia's more reasonable than i assumed but i looked up auckland's climate before making that comment, 60s/70s F most of the year is defo very warm to me, especially with no winter/proper seasons
also ive heard australia's UV index makes those temps feel a lot worse but idk
60s/70s F most of the year is defo very warm to me
That's because presumably you live somewhere very cold - snow in the cities themselves is pretty rare in both New Zealand and Australia so if you're coming from Europe and Northern USA/Canada it will feel warm/mild even in the cooler places for most of the year.
Hobart is closer to Auckland or colder too
UV is mostly the same, can be a bit deceptive in NZ when it's cooler and/or overcast
near NYC so defo not very cold but slightly i guess, still got hot summers. i remember going south and judging everyone who thought 60F was chilly that's like my favorite/most comfy temp for a walk lmao
I've only casually looked into this because my finances aren't anywhere near close enough to just pick up and leave but if you're looking for an English speaking country and you make a decent amount of money maybe Australia or New Zealand, Portugal, Spain, or Vietnam would probably be in my picks if you're willing to pick up the language.
NZ seems nice fs. i'm definitely open to a lot, though i think somewhere in the EU would have the least hassle for me. i'm lucky, my mom's from germany, so i could get dual US/german citizenship through jus sangueni or some shit. afaik, EU citizenship lets you live and work anywhere in the EU/schengen, without a permit/visa or anything.
how you feel about Ireland? that's lowkey been a dream for a while. i've also been considering germany, but there's a couple cultural turn offs (american-like individualism and everyone over 30 being the biggest rule stickler)
i have 3 more years of college, so i'm thinking about studying abroad for a semester to potentially find somewhere for when i'm older. was worried about the cost at first but i think i could actually save money from my american uni
Not the person you asked but Ireland is good in a lot of respects but I think the job and housing market is pretty rough. The social security net is generally really good though. Another alternative that is similar that gets overlooked is Scotland.
Both countries are far from utopias however.
NZ is a good country especially if you want your kids to engage in postcolonialism because, as a western English-speaking country, it's hard for me to think of a country that has made as much progress with regards to indigenous rights as NZ. It's a vast distance from being good but it's much better than its neighbour, Australia, in this respect. NZ is a bit fucked with regards to its economy though.
it's hard for me to think of a country that has made as much progress with regards to indigenous rights as NZ.
An incredibly grim statement notwithstanding that it's also true
I don't think there's a good place in America to raise kids. California is probably less bad than most places.
Muscatine, Iowa.
Joking. But what I think is going to matter the most is taking consistent time towards working together to learn historical materialism, encouraging the growth of critical thinking skills, and generally allowing them to grow into the people they'll become.
Although I will say that being able to experience diversity in nationalities, ethnicities, and cultures is essential in developing a more rounded world-view and discouraging racist worldviews.
Though we're from California, we raised our kid in Iowa from 9 years old and he's now a 29 year old leftist, and his girlfriend is the niece of a former GOP governor of another state and she's also a leftist. So, if we can do it in Iowa, you can do it where you are.
So, if we can do it in Iowa, you can do it where you are.
bruv, I'm Alaskan, if I can exist, I'm sure commies can sprout up anywhere lmao
Oakland. Much cheaper than NYC/SF/LA
Lots of minorities, lots of queers, lots of left wing activism, lots of working class character. Close proximity to SF which also has tons of the same thing but with more bourgeois and white vibes
I don't think it's gonna be drastically different either way but I'm personally biased towards smaller cities away from the coasts. In blue or blueish states but not complete democrat hegemonies. Seems like growing up where everyone is a democrat (at least in name) sets up an arc for people to react against that by becoming a republican, but growing up where most people are democrats (in the cities), but frothing conservatives are a bit more close to home, and don't provide an alluring counter as much because there are nearby counties, etc where they hold power, is probably helpful. Then, if you're paying attention, you realize how spineless the dem leaders are and how much worse than their own voters they are, and you're on your way to being a leftist.
But again I have nothing to back this up, its probably all a pattern my brain invented based on my limited life experience.
I don't think anywhere is going to have much better state mandated curriculum than CA but I guess in a reactionary area your school board could go bad real fast... places like chicago, minneapolis/st paul, pittsburgh/philly, all probably are decent choices but I don't think there's anything really that makes them better places to raise leftist kids exactly, so much as just to raise kids in a more livable urban environment where they might be able to have some freedom that doesn't involve a car. urbanism isn't everything but I can't imagine raising a leftist in deep suburbia except out of necessity.
