Young people need political education. But why?
There are countless surveys, statistics or studies showing that young people don’t vote and are not interested in politics, that they allegedly don’t care about the decisions that are made in our society. It’s not that easy and, of course, it’s going to be difficult to find a 20 years old who is interested in new tax reform plans but that’s exactly the point.
When I say the word “politics” probably many of you think of a man in a suit talking about taxes or laws, but politics is more than that. Politics is about what happens in our neighborhood, in our country or in the world. It’s about what we, as citizens, should be allowed to do or what we shouldn’t be allowed to do, which behavior should be endorsed, which should be punished, what we think is fair and what is not. Many young people aren’t really aware of the amount of topics the word “politics” covers and I think that is the main reason why they appear not to be interested, so our goal should be to make them aware of that. Make them aware of what politics really means because politics is about the rules of our society. There’s a multitude of possibilities for any individual to take influence on politics. For example, you can launch an initiative or a petition that means collecting signatures for an idea in order to give citizens the opportunity to show their support. You can have the entire country discussing an idea. Or you can get involved in an NGO that has programs about local politics. There are so many NGOs that do this.
Today, unfortunately, many people haven’t heard much about politics when they finished school and the ones who have heard about it were often only made to learn something by heart which is not exactly the point. When I was 28 years old I joined a youth branch of a party and one of the reasons for me to join a political party, besides that I’ve graduated Political Sciences, was to increase the political education and to make it interesting. There, together with some friends, we started projects aimed to increase the involvement of young people in the national politics and increase the political education. But shouldn’t the political education be the job of the school instead of some party members? The idea is that every person should know at the end of their school about the basics of politics, how to form and advocate an opinion, why is important to vote or take part in political activities. The young people should understand how does the state work, what democratic instruments are there, how can you launch an initiative. But we need the practical part for all of these. Maybe we can have conferences where current political topics are discussed or fake parties could be made-up and mock elections could be held in order to learn how the process works or you could be a mayor or a MP for a week.
Young people shouldn’t only know by heart what politics is, they should know what politics is like – then they are much more likely become engaged themselves – and becoming engaged doesn’t necessarily mean that they have to become politicians. Even if they only start being more interested in political topics and start to participate more in elections and votes I think the goal is achieved. In most countries you’re allowed to vote when you’re 18 years old so, on one hand, we don’t tell young people much about politics before they reach that age, but at the same time we expect them to participate in votes and elections as soon as they’re old enough. Without political education when exactly should they start to learn something about politics, in the night of their 18th birthday?
How many adolescents would answer “yes” if asked if they’re interested in politics – probably a few. How many have an opinion on gay marriage, drug policies or climate change – probably all. I think young people are not disinterested in politics, maybe they’re not interested in what they think politics is about, but they are very well interested in what it actually is – about the rules of our society. Young people need political education in order to be able to stand up for their own opinion and if we make it possible for more individuals to participate in decision-making we strengthen the base of our society and our democracy.
