Moments of: The Blog
Viewing the Election: The Quest for Long-Term Civic Engagement
by Tucker Foehl, Head of School
Watching last week’s presidential debate, and the melee that ensued, I spent most of the night thinking (actually, worrying) about our students and recent alums, many of whom are voting for the first time in their life. I can vividly recall watching the 1992 presidential debates with friends when I was in high school as we learned more about pressing issues and became more deeply engaged in electoral politics. While I likely romanticize that moment in contrast to the excruciating debate last week, I cannot imagine that any of our students will look back on this recent debate without being reminded that it was a depressing low point of American politics.
What many commentators called the “worst presidential debate in our lifetimes,” did little to inform us on the issues. Worse, it reminded us that the president is still unwilling to even condemn white supremacy, going so far as to tell one prominent white supremacist organization to “stand by” during the debate. Sorting through the wreckage, I wondered what impact all of this is having on our young people at this important moment of their own political maturation? How will this debate impact their collective interest in politics and civic engagement? And how can we ensure that young people exercise their right to vote and participate in our democracy?
The Upshot published an article yesterday, “Why Don’t Young People Vote, and What Can Be Done About It?,” which presented a fascinating analysis of youth voting in 24 countries and links young voters' low turnout to the overall apathy of the general electorate. Fewer than half of Americans 18-29 voted in the 2016 presidential election -- a gap of more than 15 points compared to the overall turnout -- and that puts us close to the bottom with Switzerland where young voters had a turnout of 33% in their 2019 presidential election. Contrast that with Sweden’s 2018 presidential election, where 86% of young people voted, and it is clear we have some serious work ahead of us.
The article explores short, medium, and long range suggestions to boost voter turnout amongst young people. The low and medium range solutions are incredibly valuable --- we need to get young people the information they need to register to vote and make it to the polls, and we need to remove the systemic barriers that inhibit voter participation for all who are eligible to vote. But I want to focus on their long-term solution, which they define as “reimagining civics education.”
While we have held voter registration drives for our eligible students and, in 2018, our campus became a polling location for the first time, with all of the current challenges with COVID, we are squarely focused on reimagining civic engagement and political participation. Our teachers and Impact programs are addressing this monumental election and its potential consequences in many ways. Here are just a few examples:
- Hillary Younglove’s visual art students have undertaken art projects centered around political activism and the election (view examples here).
- Danielle Delario's Impact project, “Protests, Petitions, and Policy,” looks at politics from the local government level.
- Jen Cote’s Contemporary Theater students are creating original performances (eight minutes and 46 seconds in length) related to social justice, as part of the nationwide Breath Project (please read more about it below).
- Michele Martin’s Impact group, “Empowering Female Voices: Election 2020,” has started a workshop series with Close Up (a Washington DC based civic engagement education group), looking specifically at the election and women's role in politics.
- Under the leadership of Nancy Metzger-Carter, the Student Sustainability Leaders have lobbied members of Congress to take action on climate change.
- Drew Gloger’s Constitutional Law class is discussing the impending Supreme Court battle and its implications, and his American Studies class is discussing the questions at the forefront of this year’s election as they relate to the political issues that have been through-lines throughout our nation’s history
- Rodney Fierce has turned his Hum 3 class into a Town Hall, where students discuss their impressions of current events and pose questions about the poltical system; they are also designing their own U.S. Constitutions (using the New Jersey and Virginia plans originally proposed by the Founding Fathers to help frame them)
We have been intentional in creating space for meaningful debate and nuanced conversation around highly charged political issues and differences of opinion in our classrooms. In Advisory, our Brave Spaces curriculum seeks to prepare students to discuss controversial topics with confidence and mutual respect (you can read more about Brave Spaces here). We hope that our students will carry these tools with them well beyond our campus (or Zoom rooms), empowering them to engage in challenging political conversations with empathy and openness.
Our mission statement expresses a commitment to helping students “prepare to become leaders in a dynamic world.” When those words were written two decades ago, none of us had an idea of how dynamic the world would rapidly become in 2020. The passion and commitment our students and teachers are displaying in the run-up to the most consequential election of our lifetime indicates that we are living our mission and values, even amidst such challenging times. At SA, we strive to educate students who are not only informed about the mechanics of politics in the present, but who are also aware of their important role as citizens and leaders well beyond next month’s election. One that embodies a lasting form of civic engagement.
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...the only private, independent, college preparatory high school in Sonoma County. On our beautiful campus nestled at the base of Taylor Mountain in Southeastern Santa Rosa, our students are able to explore their interests and passions in a rigorous and inspiring environment that develops a lifelong love of learning and prepares them for college and beyond.
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