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federal government and the education system
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Many students wonder why they should take Government class. They think that they are not affected by the actions of our government, or that learning about it will not help them at all in their life. Or worse, they think that they have no power to influence the government because of their age. Fortunately, none of these things are true. The United States Government is a big part of the lives of all American citizens, and that includes those who are under eighteen years old.
Our government has as much of an effect on students as it does on anybody else. Laws created, enforced, and interpreted by the different branches of government control what we can and cannot do. Public services are taken advantage of by adults and minors alike. Besides these obvious aspects, there are many others that more directly affect the everyday lives of students. Budgetary allotments to education determine the quality of the schools they attend every weekday. The education received by students ultimately alters what they will eventually go on to do in later life. Decisions made by the courts can change the way educational facilities are run and the rights of students while at school, such as Engel v. Vitale, Tinker v. Des Moines, and Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier. These landmark cases established precedents and had a large impact on the daily lives of current and future students. Laws commanding what is allowed, as well as required, to be taught in schools is another way in which the government shapes the opinions of today's youth. Learning certain things (rather than others) can change the way a student views the world. For example, being taught the Theory of Evolution rather than Creationism or abstinence rather than sexual education can mold a...
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...an, they can bring attention to causes that are important to students everywhere.
Though perhaps not as powerful as adults when it comes to the federal government, students are equally important. They are affected just as much by the activities of their superiors as are any other minority in America. Government class can be beneficial in educating minors about how their government relates to them and how they can influence their authority. By speaking out and making themselves heard, minors can be just as effective in their efforts to modify the government to fit their needs. In a democracy, the most important voice is the voice of the people. Age should not be a defining factor in how significant a group or an individual's views are. If America cannot cater to the will of a relatively large percentage of its citizens, how can it call itself a true democracy?
The young people are now able to embrace the constitution and civic education courtesy of the 26th amendment. Most of the 18-year olds become more responsible and start acting as adults who put matters of national concern into great consideration. The young people are able to exchange nationalistic ideas and come up with solutions to some of the matters affecting the nation. The flexibility of the constitution has inspired patriotism especially from the younger generations who identify with it because it is tailored to cater for their ever-changing needs and challenges. Many of the young people are able to participate in measures taken by the government in times of calamity such as hurricanes through volunteering as rescuers or giving contributions to the people affected by such
It is our civic right and duty to actively participate in governmental affairs. This recent election really highlighted the divide in opinion regarding the importance of governmental participation. “To many, our democratic system seems so broken that they have simply lost faith that their participation could really matter,” West writes in his essay entitled The Deep Democratic Tradition in America. Young people feel unimportant and irrelevant, which explains the lack in turnout from young voters ages 18-29. However, it wasn’t just young voters that didn’t turnout. Millions of eligible voters didn’t show up for the 2016 elections. A democracy without active participants is a democracy bound for
It has become a growing trend in the 1990's that college students do not take advantage of their right to vote and to take part in the democratic system. In fact, only one out of every three individuals in the 18 to 24 age group cast a ballot in the 1996 presidential election. College students ranked as the least represented demographic" (http://www.idsnews.com/ news/2000.07.31/campus/2000.07.31.students.html). Students do not want to vote for many different reasons. They are considered apathetic by society, but this isn't really the case. In actuality, students feel that politicians turn them away. Most importantly, students do not vote because they feel that they can't make a difference. Also, distance from their voting districts has been a problem for many people. Another major issue for students is that they are just too busy and don't make time to follow politics closely. In polling freshman at Manhattanville College, I discovered that all these are true. The effects of this may be catastrophic. Politicians need to start including and interesting the people of my generation in order to keep democracy thriving.
Julian Nava was one of the people who fought to end IQ testing. He believed that students that did not get high IQ scores still had the potential to be something greater than a factory worker.
In Australia the young adults “are less likely to be enrolled to vote than older groups. An estimated 300,000 Australians aged 18 to 25 do not vote in elections because they have not enrolled” (31,2006). While in the United States, “19% of all votes cast in 2012 came from young voters” (2016). While voting does not effect young children since they cannot vote, however when teens vote it allows them to become more educated in their country and their political system. Since most of the teens in Australia do not vote, they do not have copious amount of knowledge from their countries political system. Having this knowledge will allow students to use this knowledge in their school life helping them understand history and government
Compulsory education laws define America’s adolescent people today. Without these laws many people wouldn’t get the education they need in life or for their future. Compulsory education helps people develop or expand many skills that they will need in life, such as social and thinking skills. By abolishing compulsory education laws in the United States people wouldn’t develop such skills or be prepared for life ahead of them. By removing this you would have a generation full of young people who wouldn’t know how to think.
According to the documentary “Most Likely To Succeed,” the American education system was created to train America’s youth for jobs in factories during the industrial revolution. However, technological advances will soon make those jobs obsolete. With machines being able to be programmed to do manual labor, the only jobs that will remain are those that require higher level thinking skills. The majority of current high school curriculum does not allow students to exercise their creative thinking skills and does not leave much room for free thought. The current curriculum was developed to teach what employers deemed essential knowledge, such as geometry, biology, and geography. These subjects should still be taught to children because a fundamental understanding of these subjects helps them understand the world around them. The U.S. government realized this and made public schools not only virtually free but mandatory to help children succeed. In contrast, today a college degree is more than ever vital for the country’s youth and the government has done little to help them obtain a higher education. The days of factory workers and laborers are over and it is time the nation prepares children for the road ahead. If not they are on the road towards certain failure and a life of poverty. With an already shrinking middle class one would think the government would be doing everything in its power to assist children in getting a higher education to find a
However, through this course I have also come to recognize that due to the negative perception that is placed on our generation, the political objectives of young people will likely never be given adequate consideration by public officials should we continue to practice engaged citizenship while disregarding electoral participation. My personal definition of citizenship is recognizing the privileges we have as citizens of the United States and contributing to one’s community in whatever way they are able to do so. A responsible citizen is not simply an observer of the political process, but rather an informed
Today, the way the educational system works in the U.S. concerns a large number of people in this country. "Only 25% of adults have a great deal of confidence in the people running education, according to the General Social Survey, down from 49% in 1974" (Russel 4). A lot of discussions have been held to find the best ways to improve teaching methods. At the same time, people recognize that a very valuable solution to increase the level of education in the United States is to look at some problems that cause difficulties and hamper the enhancement of the quality of education. The first step is to define these problems. As in every country, the U.S. wants to develop its national standards in education and wants them to be high. This has always been a government function. Being democratic, the government is trying to fit the qualities of democracy into the way to set these standards. Of course, this is not an easy task since this country has a very diverse population. To please everybody has always been an almost impossible task. Despite this impossibility, national standards have already been set. "If a visitor from another nation was dropped into an American public school classroom without knowing the state or the region, he or she would be likely to see the same lesson taught in the same way to children of the same age" (Ravitch 9). Everything seems right except the fact that the abilities of children are different. Not everybody is able to study at a college; not everybody wants to continue being educated. It is obvious that every country wants to produce as many educated people as possible. But, at the same time, every country needs workers because, regardless of the fast development of technology, there is still a great necessity for human labor. To satisfy all the necessities of the country, the government should provide different kinds of education. This does not mean that we need to eliminate all of the standards; they could be set in each field of education. Although standards are set, there is still a very big difference in teaching methods in different schools. Perhaps, the most serious problem starts in high schools: some schools provide a higher level of education than others. Students from most city schools graduate with the confidence in their knowledge; their level of educati...
America is not a democracy if youth are denied the right to vote. Democracy is defined by Webster’s Dictionary as "government by the people." If some of the people – youth – are denied the right to vote for government leaders than the American government is not "by the people." The Declaration of Independence says that governments are instituted by the consent of the governed, and that governments can be overthrown when the people don’t consent anymore. Laws that young people are forced to obey are passed every day throughout the nation. Some of these laws only affect youth, such as curfew laws and compulsory school attendance laws. Most of these laws affect the whole population and all American citizens. Yet young people have no say in these laws, no say in the legislators that make these laws, no say in politics, no say in the rules that they must abide by. According to the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, young people born in the United States are Am...
Voting is a political liberty of many law-abiding citizens of the United States of America. In today’s culture, there is a widespread belief that America’s youth do not vote, and in turn possess the lowest voter turnout amongst citizens. This research will discuss the voting behavior of America’s youth as it relates to their older counterparts. With young people accounting for 21% of the eligible voting population, it is necessary for them to understand the importance their voting participation has on society (CIRCLE, 2010). America’s youth is slightly disengaged from the political world and tend to vote less often than older voters. However, this disconnect from politics does not exist because they are uninterested in political practices. Arguably, voter turnout is the lowest for youth because there is a lack of political awareness. Young adults are not properly targeted during campaign seasons and lack the necessary tools to be considered an informed voter.
As much as adolescents complain about education, we would be crippled without it. The immense freedom we have in America to learn whatever we want is something we should not take for granted. People in other countries fight to learn and to educate themselves as best as they can. People in America just 50 years ago had to fight to learn. Could you imagine living in a world where you couldn’t learn? People all over the world fight for that, because it’s scary to live in a world where you can’t do the simple task of reading or writing. What if you couldn’t read the label on a bottle of bleach? Could you imagine the damage that could cause you, simply because you couldn’t read? We have so much knowledge at our fingertips; museums, libraries, public
When governments are out of touch with the bodies they govern then they have become ineffective. This holds true for any situation where one group has control over another from the United States Congress, to state and local governments, and even school boards and administrators. Student life is fully regulated by those who are in noway subject to their own rules. Many examples of this are present in the hallways of schools across America. Most of the hypocrisies are not major travesties of justice, but they do lead to a feeling of second class citizenship among the student body. Little things like not being able to drink a cup of coffee in the hallway degrades students by questioning their ability to perform a simple task without causing problems or difficulties.
“We hold these Truths to be self-evident that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life,LIberty,and the Pursuit of Happiness”(“From the Declaration of Independence”). Society doesn’t guarantee individuals unalienable rights, yet it's stated in the Constitution that, “all men are created equally with certain unalienable rights” (“From the Declaration of Independence”). As well as society doesn’t believe in civil rights for kids, because of their age and era. Constantly people keep discriminating against student rights because adults get to decide for kids. In addition students are also American citizens, and also have unalienable rights that our past generations had to fight for.
In America, teenagers are taught not to question or object to what is going on in the world. Schools take away teens First Amendment rights by not allowing them to have free speech and voice their opinions. The education given to them is censored and limited, not allowing them to see and know the truths behind everything. By doing this, teenagers are being reared to grow up blind like the current generation of adults. The people of America are failing to see the country as it truly is. This generation of teenagers are this country’s future and will soon be depended upon to be leaders. The system undermines students from exceeding standard education and does not allow them to achieve exceptional proficiency. The quality of education is in a crisis; part of reason for this crisis is the unconstitutional limitations given, including the restrictions of religion.