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.