High School Students Are Entering the Arena

This weekend I had the privilege of participating in the first Once and Future Citizen Conference­. This remarkable and unique event was initiated, planned, and brought into reality by high school students who want to improve our politics and civil sphere. I left feeling deeply optimistic about the future of American politics.

The New York-based students who planned the conference are informed and engaged in politics but, like most in Gen Z, are frustrated by the extreme political dysfunction throughout the country. The high schoolers saw many of their peers lacking a political voice and feeling “disconnected and uncertain about their civic agency.” As such, the students organized to help “empower New York City high schoolers to find their voices” and create a community where younger Americans learn the skills and gain the knowledge to “take the lead in shaping their civic understanding and future.” The mission of the endeavor is “to ignite a deep sense of civic responsibility in students and empower them to shape their communities with purpose and passion.”

This project is critical for Gen Z students—those in high school and college today—for Springtide Research has shown that so many Zers are not only deeply disillusioned with politics in general but also with political identities, parties, and politicians as well. Springtide has found that “Young people tend to characterize politics and politicians as performative, emotional, and divisive. Even the most politically engaged young people we interviewed hold negative associations with politics as a frame for civic life.”

At the same time, data regularly demonstrates that many young people care about finding common ground, embracing differing perspectives, and promoting pragmatic political compromise. The obstacle here is that the current political climate has created a world where those in Gen Z have distanced themselves from political activity and thus severely limited the impact of their views and voice in the policy sphere. Gen Zers report that politics is not important in their lives; almost half of young people (46 percent) say that politics is “not at all important” or “among the least important things” in their lives. Just two percent of young people say that politics is the most important thing in their life, while 16 percent say politics is among the most important things in their lives.

This acute problem is what that the Once and Future Citizen Conference intends to solve. Justin Khan, the project’s founder, wisely shared in his opening remarks,

Our goal here today is not to teach you what the most important issues of the day are. We are not going to tell you that you should prioritize one thing over another. That’s for you to decide. What we are here to do is give you the means to address these issues. To equip our generation with the tools we need to make the change we want to see in this country, in this world.

Khan continued that an aim throughout the conference is for its participants to “learn about the importance of joining the civil service, of running for office, of lobbying, of activism, of education, of journalism, and of campaigning in the road to enacting civic change.” He concluded with an appropriate call to action, noting that for those hundred-plus students from a wide array of schools who had given up their Saturday morning, “This is our time. This is our time to use the tools available to us, the tools within this nation, to bring about the change that we want to see, and the change that we want to live.”

The day involved seminars and workshops that intended to empower these students with the intellectual background to make sense of the present political moment, along with helping develop their civic skills. I spent about an hour talking about politics and the current polarized epoch with this very diverse group of students. Speaking to participants bluntly and openly, I talked about contentious, divisive, and challenging political and policy questions. But instead of arguing and throwing labels around, the students listened, questioned, commented, and engaged respectfully, thoughtfully, and with a desire to understand and empathize with difference.

Americans are polarized; so much so that our politics are counterproductive in helping all Americans realize their own American Dreams. It was clear that these high school students want to change our divisive politics for the better and, rather than waiting for the political world to treat them like voting-age citizens, they are stepping up and into the political arena now and learning how to become actors for positive change and civic responsibility. It was an absolute thrill to see this initiative, and my hope is that I and so many others can support student projects like this for these younger Americans may truly help end our nation’s political paralysis.