Today, I heard a 10 year old student say, “Trump is not my president!”

Now, this child cannot vote, so this sentiment doesn’t come from vehemently not voting for Trump. It probably doesn’t even come from a well-worded NPR op-ed. Parents and our students’ educators are the most likely source of this child’s personally uninformed rhetoric.

I’m painting a really large target on my chest when I say like misogyny, racism, gender-shaming, et cetera, our children – lacking critical thinking skills – will parrot incorrect rhetoric as fact. We have a societal responsibility to our children to provide them with fact and understanding rather than emotional personal rhetoric.

How shameful is it when a 10 year old girl utters nonsense like “Women should not be allowed to think or talk about thinking” or “People from Upper Lower Slobovia smell like pickled ostrich entrails and must be deported” or “Women who dress like men who dress like women are abomination against the natural order”? These are fine examples of misleading children with harmful bias and dangerous misinformation.

We have a Constitution children must understand to affect real change in our republic. Having them echo “Trump is not my president” betrays (most likely) our parents’ and educators’ failure to instruct our children properly, responsibly, and factually so they are prepared for adulthood as informed, educated citizens.

A 10 year old saying “Trump is not my president” is a child robbed of the very basic lesson of how our constitutional elections work, why even one vote counts, and how being active and engaged affects who becomes our president.

“Trump is not my president” sounds ignorant. Ignorance is temporary.

I did not vote for Trump. I’m in this for the kids.

As an end note, please research the values and motivations of the Nazi party. Also research the “how and why” of the electoral college. And finally, compare and contrast the mass exterminations of Hitler and Stalin.