Actress Janine Turner Talks about Raising an American Patriot

Did your kids learn how to sing the Preamble to the Constitution from Schoolhouse Rock? Could they explain what the words mean to them if you asked?

Actress turned activist Janine Turner, best known for her roles in Northern Exposure, Friday Night Lights and Strong Medicine, has become what she calls the “Crazy Constitution Lady” in order to ignite a passion in our nation’s children about our founding documents and principles and more importantly, know what they mean in their own lives.  

Turner, along with long-time political and philanthropic activist Cathy Gillespie, began the non-profit foundation called Constituting America (www.constitutingamerica.org) in February of this year. The purpose is two-fold – create an interesting forum for kids to learn more about The Constitution, as well as for parents to brush up on their knowledge of our country’s most important documents.

“Our children are our future. You can’t start too young (teaching them about liberty). They understand way earlier than we think,” Turner tells Family First. “We’re muting our kids by being politically correct. It’s overriding common sense.”

Turner points out there’s a difference between being politically correct and being politically respectful. From religion, God and Christian crosses to the Pledge of Alliance and even saying America is exceptional, kids are getting psychologically examined, reprimanded and even suspended from school. What is this teaching our kids? To sit down and be quiet.  

In a recent blog post on the Constituting America website, Turner calls for the end of complacency and an awakening in our children. “Not an awakening of political parties or partisan politics but of our youth’s minds,” she writes.

In 1778, Abigail Adams, wife of John Adams and mother of John Quincy Adams wrote to her young son these words while he was off at war with his father:

“These are the times in which a genius would wish to live. It is not in the still calm of life, or the repose of a pacific station, that great characters are formed… Great necessities call out great virtues. When a mind is raised, and animated by scenes that engage the heart, then those qualities which would otherwise lay dormant, wake into life and form the character of the hero and the statesman.” John Quincy Adams was approximately 9 or 10 years old at the time!

Turner has some ideas about how parents can raise their own modern-day patriotic American child.

Be a role model.  Fly your flag, read The Constitution and discuss it with your kids, take a stand against things you don’t like. Illustrate to your kids that passion about things can turn into real action, just as John Quincy Adams saw in his parents while they fought for our freedom.  The kids are watching.

Turner told Family First about how, several years ago, she found out her daughter Juliette’s Montessori school wasn’t reciting the Pledge of Allegiance at the start of the day. She thought that wasn’t right so she went to the school’s management and persuaded them to change this policy. By standing up for what she thought was right, Turner was able to show her young daughter about the effects of a free society and asking for what’s right. Do you know if your child’s school recites the Pledge?

Be a good citizen too.  Turner says, “Help an old man down the steps.” And vote. Take your children with you to the polling place so they can see the process in action of having their voices heard.  

Talk about how freedom benefits them. Being exceptional allows you to rise above, just as the United States rose above all others. Turner points out that the founding fathers wanted government to get out of the way and let the people succeed (or fail) as was their right. Teach kids “it’s not wrong to have dreams and hopes,” she says. Being an entrepreneur herself, she is teaching Juliette about the American Dream and Juliette now understands how to make a difference and how empowering that can be.

Turner used the analogy of balloons. A filled balloon floats above; a popped balloon “is easier to confine in a box” she says. It’s easy to contain and thus, control. “If nobody has thoughts and dreams, then we get controlled,” she says.

Read the founding documents and supporting books together and discuss. Turner reads William Bennett’s The American Patriot’s Almanac with her 12-year-old daughter Juliette at night when they’re eating dinner.  This way, they can discuss the topics in a meaningful way.

Turner suggests to parents that they take advantage of quiet times – driving to soccer practice or ballet class or at bedtime – to talk about what it means to be free.  While she and Juliette drive into town from their ranch in Texas, Juliette reads the Federalist Papers to Janine. The Constituting America site currently posts daily entries from Turner and Gillespie as well as a host of constitutional experts regarding the Federalist Papers as part of their 90 in 90 = 180 program. By reading the papers together, Janine prepares for her blog posts and Juliette learns about the founding principles and debate our founding fathers had as they formed the nascent government of our country.  

As a result of her growing knowledge of our country’s founding, Juliette now serves as the National Youth Director for Constituting America. She travels with her mother to speaking engagements and television appearances to help spread the word and to show other kids that it is cool to be “Constitutional.”

Use media kids are interested in to help teaching them about our founding principles. By using tools appropriate to what kids like, it makes it more effective to teach kids. Through the “We the People 9/17 Contest,” Constituting America allowed kids to submit entries about what the Constitution means to them. Kids used writing, song, art and film to express their views. Turner said they were “so thrilled” with the number of entries and the quality of the entries. The contest entries are currently being judged and will be announced in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on Constitution Day, September 17, 2010.

 Winning entries will be made available to download on September 1^st so schools can view and discuss on the 17^th. Turner hopes parents will ask their schools to make sure and view the entries so they can discuss the importance of the Constitution in our daily lives, from the point of view of their peers.

Get kids talking to each other.  Make it cool to be a patriot. Create Patriot Clubs where you read the Constitution together in peer groups and discuss exactly what this means in everyday life. As parents, sometimes it’s easy to forget what we’ve taken for granted as our way of life for so long and then we forget to teach our kids what a great privilege it is to live in a free society.  By letting kids talk to each other, they can use their own terms, their own experience to help each other understand more about our country’s history.    

What scared the British the most, Turner points out, were the times right before the Declaration of Independence was signed, when the people were coming together with an awareness of the rights they wanted to have and the independence they wanted from Britain. “They were willing to sacrifice for what’s best for our country,” says Turner.

The patriots dressed in itchy wool instead of buying soft silk from the British, says Turner. They would rather be uncomfortable than patronize an oppressive government. Turner herself has sacrificed in her career as she has become more outspoken for her cause and has seen her livelihood becoming more challenging for her to succeed in, due to her views.

Sacrifice is what we need to teach our kids to understand so then they understand what it is like to truly be free. “If they don’t know their rights, they won’t know when they’re being taken away.” Turner wrote in a recent blog post.

So, get a copy of the Constitution from Constituting America and start raising your patriot today.

About Janine Turner

(From her website) JANINE TURNER, a native Texan, is probably best known for her role as ‘Maggie O’Connell’ in the Emmy Award-winning CBS series, “Northern Exposure” and in the top rated, hit Lifetime series, “Strong Medicine.” And now she has joined the cast of NBC’s critically acclaimed, “Friday Night Lights” to star as the eccentric Katie McCoy. Always creating, she recently produced and directed the short film “Trip in a Summer Dress” which also starred her young daughter Juliette. She won the coveted Best New Emerging Director for a short film at the Deep Ellum Film Festival. She recently starred with Tom Wilkinson in the movie “Night of the White Pants” and also stars in “Primal Doubt” a film for Lifetime Television. And, she co-produced and stars in a yoga video, called “Christoga”, which combines yoga moves with Christian meditation and is sold through her website as well as on Amazon.com. She also sang an original song she wrote for the DVD. Both DVDs and CD are available through her website, http://janineturner.com  

Her book “Holding Her Head High” has received national acclaim and made the Washington Post Bestseller List. She currently speaks around the country as an inspirational speaker, most recently at Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church in California and appears regularly on the Fox News Channel. You may see clips on her website www.janineturner.com and her book is available there or at local bookstores or at Barnes&Noble.com or www.Amazon.com.