As a senior in high school, my classmates and I sit on the precipice unlike what many of us have seen, the transition to adulthood. It is undoubtedly true that becoming a fully-fledged adult and graduating high school comes with its own perks; its a fresh start, a chance too move in a bold new direction or stay on your course, it is freedom! Like any other promotion, adulthood comes with heavy new responsibilities. Beyond the responsibilities (or warnings) most will tell you about, such as being able to go to prison or paying taxes, there is the responsibility of participating in our society through voting. But, is this a skill that we are emphasizing enough in our schools? Though we have classes like Government and U.S history that discuss political topics, there is still a lack of systems and groups in place to encourage these behaviors.
Here in the United States, our entire culture has been built upon democratic ideals. This is a culture spanning hundreds of years before July 4th 1776. Since the city state of Athens and their development “Demokratia” (meaning rule by the people), democracy has been tweaked and tuned to better fit the current time. Even though we have more work to do in order to make our elections more accessible, this tradition encapsulates humanity’s ambitions of equality and prosperity. So if we hold voting in elections so closely to our American identity, why don’t we encourage these behaviors in our schools? When discussing this issue it is important to note the worrying statistics from recent elections. According the University of Florida Election Lab about 90 million eligible voters did not cast a ballot in the 2024 presidential election, that means only 63.7% of eligible voters made it to the ballot box last November and by extension, less than a quarter of them chose our president . It is my firm belief that if we want to maintain a society built upon such strong democratic ideals we need to strengthen it at its foundations; our schools.
But how do we go about this? how can we possibly encourage a teenage population of students to make decisions when adults can barely do so themselves? To answer this question it is essential to find the root cause. I believe this voting apathy partly stems from a lack of student representation. High School students are at most four years away from entering a society where their voices and their votes can mean a world of difference, yet we do not make the effort to show students that their voices can make the changes that they want to see in the world. If students are not shown that their voice can make changes to their own school then how can they be expected to believe their voice can affect an entire country.
One might say we have enough student representation through our Senior Council, we elect a class president who guides decision making for our year. While that might seem like enough it is a far cry from it. To encourage our future citizens to do their civic duty, we need to add variety to our decision making beyond electing a president as the non-presidential elections are voted on even less in our country. According to a study conducted by National Public Radio (NPR) about 46.8% of the eligible population voted during the 2022 midterm elections. This can be chalked up to a multitude of factors including the difference in media coverage between presidential elections and midterms, but if this is an issue we want to address why not look to our schools. To have true representation, students should be provided a variety of issues beyond the presidency including being able to elect a certain number of members of senior council or ASB position members, to smaller subjects such as school wide events.
As a school with a smaller population and tight knit community, Northridge Academy should be a leader in this mission. As stated by Malcolm X “education is our passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today.” Our current education system holds the keys to our country’s future through our students. So if we commit passionately to instilling our ideals of choice to them today, they will be well equipped to fight for their future tomorrow.