Whatever the differences between members of political parties, and no one involved in politics will agree with the ‘they’re all the same’ dismissal so often thrown at politicians by people as a reason for not voting, we do have at least one similarity – we all want more people to engage with politics and to be politically active and, at the very least, to use their vote.
I’ve been thinking about voter turnout for some time now, and how to try to address the problem we have where too few people vote. And the more I think about it the more I think we need to tackle the problem from as young an age as possible, so that casting your vote is completely and utterly normalised, just something that, as an adult, you do.
With this in mind one I decided to make one of the first projects for my new children’s publishing business, Fisherton Press, a book explaining voting and elections to very young children. I’ve been crowdfunding this project through the Kickstarter website – this means it is funded by many people donating any amount from £2 upwards. I love the idea that a book about democracy, government by the people, will also be funded by the people.
In the book, the families of two children campaign for opposing parties, but although the families feel strongly about their chosen candidates, they manage to remain friends. The message is one of engagement, participation and tolerance.
When I have told people about this project, some people have expressed reservations about whether politics, and political processes, are suitable subjects for very young children, and suggested they may find it boring. This just makes me more and more convinced that such a book needs to exist – when we understand something properly it rarely seems boring, even less so when we feel part of it. Nor do I believe too much in sanitising life for children – they need to learn that people think differently about many subjects, and that disagreement is OK. They need to know that there are winners and losers when it comes to deciding how things work, and that we don’t always get our own way, and they have to learn that these things apply to how society is run as well as what time they have to go to bed or how many sweets they are allowed.
With all that said, however, what this book will not do is try to make politics cool or pretend that it is something children can do. It isn’t advocating lowering the voting age so that toddlers can also vote. No, it shows voting as a serious business in which you need to be thoughtful and considered, but something that it is right to get involved with.
The strapline of my new company is ‘Books for children, that adults also enjoy reading’. I hope that children like the election book, and learn from it, and that the adults reading it to them do too.
There are currently three days left to contribute to this project – please see here
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Ellie Levenson is a journalist and is founder of Fisherton Press. She tweets @EllieLevenson