11 - Civics

The World of Civics:

It has been a very long time since I've discussed and learned about the topic of civics. I remember taking the course back in 9th grade. We learned multiple duties that involved important things to know as a citizen. We even had a mock trial where everyone was designed to teach us about the court system and your role in the judicial system. I believe that teachers should continue to teach students major points in the topic of civics. Civics is defined as the study of rights and duties of citizenship. 

I wanted to take a look at the link that Professor Reppert sent out on the young activist who is pushing to lower the voting age to 16. Tyler Okeke is 19 years old and is among a group of young people who have taken the initiative to protest lowering the voting age. For the longest time people ages 18-29 were one of the lowest voting groups but recently that has been on the rise. Especially throughout the past few months these young people (Gen Z) have been pushing for multiple issues that will effect their future like climate change, LGBTQ rights, and the Black Lives Matter Movement. Okeke believe that these young people are becoming more involved through their education of civics. "16 year olds in particular, are poised to translate their civic education into civic engagement. The U.S. history that students typically learn at that age, combined with the power to vote at the same time would create lifelong, habitual voters." In my past experience I can vouch for this statement when you start taking the upper level classes in high school you become more educated on the subject and many young people find this gives them the initiative to go out and vote. 

It's been a while since I was sixteen and took courses involved around the world of politics. However, I'm not sure I agree we should lower the voting age as school systems teach different curriculum. I can say as a young person I had no interest in politics especially around the age of sixteen. Since coming to SAU I have become much more educated in the world of politics especially this semester. Once coming to college I realized that back then I didn't have the proper education to vote for our country. However, I believe schools are beginning to update their civics programs and this will help bring new voters/attention to the world of politics.