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.

  • Chronicon [they/them]
    ·
    9 days ago

    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.