A few weeks ago I was asked about raising activist kids from a Salt Lake Tribune reporter. I'm not sure that I'm exactly an expert, but I was willing to talk about my experiences.
The story was in
today's paper . The bit that included me and my kids is below, with my comments or corrections in green:
Jennifer Killpack-Knutsen, a member of Salt Lake's Radical Cheerleaders, a group that brings levity to potentially volatile situations, has experience with consciousness-raising. It wasn't until she was in college (well, actually it was 9/11; college is when I first felt the urge but did nothing) that "I realized that I could actually do something other than complain about the state of the world. But it's also therapeutic, one of the best things I ever did. I learned that doing anything at all, even if it's small, helps me feel less frustrated by things that are out of my control."
Killpack-Knutsen takes her daughter Terra, 3, to rallies in her stroller.(It's actually my ultr-supportive husband who does the strollering so that I can play cheerleader) "She enjoys watching all the goings-on and seeing people we know. But [daughter] Autumn is 12 and she's becoming less interested. So at the last event I went to, I gave her a camera and paid her to take pictures." (I hired her to take photos that I could post on my blog)
Killpack-Knutsen also makes sure her daughters have opportunities to pursue individual interests. "I'm a vegetarian based on my concern for health (health wasn't a major concern, it was more about the environment and for spiritual reasons) and environment, but I realized it would be hard for Autumn to have to take special food to school. So I decided I just wouldn't cook meat at home but let her eat what she wanted elsewhere. When she was 8, she told me she wanted to be a vegetarian for a different reason - she cared about animal rights."