I'm a high school student in Maryland, and I think that youth activism really needs to be addressed. Given all the attention being paid to young voters and encouraging young people to get involved in civics, I think its time that perhaps instead of adults thinking about how best to reach youth, an actual youth provide his opinion. We need to make some serious improvements.
So here you, rant & suggestions below the fold.
Please allow me to preface this diary with a short introduction. I am a high school sophomore at a magnet high school in Greenbelt, MD, (a proud student of teacherken's AP Government class!) and very interested & involved in politics. I am also the Prince George's County Delegate and Co-Chairman of the Governor's Maryland Youth Council, essentially the only Youth Advisory group that is state-government sanctioned.
Now that that's done, I'll dive right in. Youth Involvement. One of the first things that always comes to mind when this topic comes up is apathy. I have been interested in politics since around the 3rd grade, but whenever I brought up the topic with many of my friends, they would say something along the lines of "Why do you care about this?" I've experienced that gradually less and less as I've gotten older, but it still certainly exists at practically every high school from people who a year after they graduate are expected to vote. So they are expected to go from "why should I care?" to a full-fledged, active, voting citizen over the course of the year between high school and college/working life. It should be no surprise that this does not happen as often as we might like. Granted, we have been seeing improvement in young voter turnout, and of course no one knows better than I that there are thousands of youth who are more active in civics than many adults. But, more must be done. The reason I added the "From a Youth's Perspective" bit to the title is because I often hear adults on television and in think tanks waxing eternal on the subject, though they rarely actually ask someone below college what they think should be done. Here's a couple suggestions from a high school-er:
- Involve youth at a much younger age. Though I hate to admit it, my friends are somewhat correct when they say "Why should I care? There's nothing I can do about it." Yes, of course, they can do something. But it is far harder for someone under 18 to reach elected officials. Apart from vocalizing our opinions to our leaders and our peers, we have little actual say in how we are governed. This is partly because we do have a voice but don't know how to use it, but also because there is limited opportunity. The Maryland Youth Council, on which I serve, was created by Governor Ehrlich in 2006 partially to correct this. The council gives youth a representative voice in the Maryland government, and it allows us to interject our thoughts and ideas into the decision-making process.
Exhibit A: No Child Left Behind in Maryland. In our public schools, we have the High School Assessment, or HSA, which was created as a part of Maryland's implementation of NCLB. It has had disastrous effects on our schools. (For more details, see this site devoted to removing the HSA.) After he was elected, Governor O'Malley held a "Maryland Youth Inaugural" which I was invited to attend. It was a town-hall style conversation with him and Lt. Governor Anthony Brown in Annapolis. Once the conversation started, the topic quickly moved to the HSA, and O'Malley was flabbergasted by the non-stop negative feedback he was hearing from students and some teachers who attended. The topic did not stray from the HSA for a solid half hour, and at the end O'Malley promised to look further into the issue. Had he not heard from youth, Governor O'Malley most likely wouldn't have known how much the HSA was/is screwing up our public schools.
Bodies like the Maryland Youth Council are needed in every local, county, and state government. Youth have unique ideas and can provide insight that otherwise might not be available to those making key decisions that greatly affect us. Perhaps even a body to advise the Federal government is in order, but I certainly don't see that anywhere on the horizon. So back to the main point; if youth realize at an early age that they can change things, I think they would be far more likely to take interest in civics and elections.
- Lower the voting age! I could stay on this topic forever, so please let me just suffice it to say this: we pay taxes, we drive on public roads, we go to public schools, we follow the same laws as everyone else, and we can now even be tried in court as adults. Yet we can't vote. There is nothing magical about the number 18.
- Improve our schools. I am not an expert in this area, but I know what I see around me every day, and my school is one of the top public schools in the area. First, good teachers usually yield smart, active students. We need to have some serious perks for teachers if we expect good ones to keep coming. Second, America's schools are crumbling, outdated relics from the 20th century. It's time we thought over how schools are run, and what is taught. More emphasis needs to be placed on skills to be valued in our world economy, like language, and less on inane memorization of soon-to-be-forgotten names, places, and dates. With all of our advancing technology, schools have remained almost the same for quite some time. As is often noted, someone from 1900 would be bewildered by most things we have and use today, but they could walk with certainty into a classroom and declare "I know this place well! This is a classroom!" Better schools will yield better students who are more prepared for the outside world (and the competitive job market, for that matter)
So, to summarize, progress is in fact being made. Organizations like the Maryland Youth Council are being implemented in many states. Candidates for public office are paying more attention to youth voters, and youth voting is up. But, if we want to make real progress, we have to think about the early life of our citizens. I think an earlier start in involvement would yield better results in categories ranging from civics to sciences. Considering America's ever-increasing competition in science and technology abroad, it is certainly time we started to think about how best to do that. These are just my thoughts; I would certainly welcome any others. But my point remains: we cannot ignore the pre-college life of youth. Change needs to happen, and soon.