Civic Talk is an ongoing blog series from Generation Citizen where we offer our perspectives on political, cultural, and global news through the lens of civic action and education, and share the articles and resources that have helped to shape our understanding.
Political fever continues to run high as we move past the early months of 2017. Citizens across the country are showing up and participate actively in government in greater numbers than we’ve seen in a long time. Yet it’s not only seasoned adults who are showing up, but young people who are leading political engagement. In Generation Citizen’s classrooms, young people engage with their elected officials every day. Some teenagers are running for office while others are supporting their peers to take action. All the while, individuals and institutions can still forget that young people are a key constituency, and this oversight can hurt our democracy for decades to come. Young people must be informed, must be listened to, and must be empowered.
These articles, which include news, feature, and opinion pieces, have helped shape our understanding of ways in which young people are taking action:
- Watch: Students’ powerful video on heroin crisis, SILive
- 19-Year-Old Runs for City Council in Georgia, New York Times
- 12-Year-Old Marley Dias Is Publishing An Activism Guide For Children And Teens, Bustle
- Newspapers are Ignoring a Key Constituency, OZY (Authored by 8th grader, Sukriti Sharma)