"How to Raise a Citizen"
with Lindsey Cormack
Season 9, Episode 05

On the eve of yet another consequential Presidential election, the result of which will greatly impact the future of all of our children, we are reminded of the duty we all have to raise children who understand and will participate in our democracy. Our guest today has literally written the book on how we can do this well. Dr. Lindsey Cormack is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Stevens Institute of Technology, and the director of its Diplomacy Lab. She specializes in American politics, strategic political communication in the context of Congress, veterans politics, women in politics and electoral systems. She runs DCinbox, a service that collects archives and makes available to the public every official E-newsletter sent by sitting members of the U.S. Congress. Her work has been covered in Fortune, The Hill, the Washington Post, among many others and she has published scores of scholarly articles. Lindsey has a BA in Political Science from the University of Kansas and an MA And PhD in politics from New York University.

Frustrated by the state of our political discourse and the huge gaps in knowledge, particularly among young people, about the wonderful experiment that is American democracy, Lindsey has written a new book just for parents. It is called How to Raise a Citizen (And why it’s up to you to do it). This book is the topic of this episode.

In this Episode you will learn about:

  • The definition of “citizen”
  • Why U.S. schools have failed to teach civics or what it means to live in and support a
    democracy
  • The ramifications of not understanding our political system
  • How to overcome obstacles to talking to your kids about politics
  • 4 questions to ask your kids when they show interest in politics
  • How to help our kids if they express extremist of violent political views
  • How to register your child vote
  • How our kids are advantaged by learning about our political system and government
  • The basic information you need to start conversations about politics with your kids

Check back soon!

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