Block is a second-year political science student at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo. He is from Encinitas.
Many young people, myself included, are increasingly grappling with ways to establish legitimacy and recognition for their perspectives. Yes, young people lack many of the life experiences that help adults come to their opinions. There are things we simply haven’t experienced and thus can’t form an educated opinion on. However, I push back on the assumption that this makes our perspectives invalid. There are plenty of instances where our voices should be valued just as much as, if not more than, adult voices (including politics!). Here’s the problem: For the most part, they aren’t.
I think a big part of that comes down to the issue of legitimacy. Young people typically don’t have a formal resume the same way adults do. We often don’t have years of concrete experience. That makes it incredibly hard to get people (especially adults) to listen to us.
I get why. But excluding young people from major decisions means leaving out some of our most outside-the-box thinkers who are often most intimately connected to the problems at hand.
I’ll use a personal anecdote to explain this. I am a big advocate for the potential of large language models like ChatGPT to help students. I am confident that the s and teachers at my school, Cal Poly, are in the midst of discussions about how to regulate this tool to prevent cheating. Yet, I have seen no outreach to the student population to obtain our perspectives. The most active s of the tool in question are not being allowed a fair seat at the table to decide how it should be used. Such conversations aren’t just happening at Cal Poly. They are happening in schools across San Diego County, across the United States and across the world. And I’d be willing to bet that only a fraction of them are involving students in the decision-making process.
So how do young people get a voice at the table? We start where we can. For me, it was an article in my school newspaper. But that start can also involve a social media post, a flier or even just a club meeting. The important part is to be persistent. Social media posts can turn into viral campaigns. Fliers can turn into protests. Clubs can turn into groups of dedicated leaders.
I want to thank The San Diego Union-Tribune for giving me the chance to share my perspectives as a young person. At the same time, I can never represent all young people. Very few teenagers get such a large platform. I hope I’m no longer the exception someday soon.
If you’re a young person reading this, I strongly urge you to speak up on issues that are important to you. Maybe it’s a global issue. Or maybe it’s an injustice at your school or your thoughts on e-bikes. What matters more than your specific topic is the profound impact of young voices showcasing articulate, complex and diverse perspectives. To get a voice at the table, we need to prove that our voices are worth hearing. That cannot happen until we push for more ways to legitimately share our thoughts.
