All month on cspan, we are featuring the winners of our studentcam documentary competition. Middleton High School Students created videos answering the question what issue do you most want of 2020 president ial candidates to address . Our second prize High School Goes to Lynn Tarr Donovan and young bentley, 12th graders from Montgomery Blair high school in silver spring, maryland, where cspan is available through comcast. Their winning entry is titled democracy must be learned, Civics Education and Youth Engagement. We founded this organization a week after the parking shooting to give students a voice in the fight for stricter gun control. Is the proven that now time for change. This is Montgomery Blair high school in silver spring, maryland. One of thousands of educational institutions that are fueling youth activism. From the march for lives to the climate strike fridays for future movement, millions of youth have involved themselves in the political process. Youth involvement in politics is nothing new. Sometimes its a cause, sometimes its a war in particular, especially if people feel they will be drafted. Sometimes it is when people feel their voices are not being heard. Often, at the same time, people participate because they want to play a role. They want that selfidentity that they are an important contributing member of society. That they play a role in government. Young people have found their way into politics, men and women, white and africanamerican, because they want to play a role, because it says something to them about their involvement and citizenship. It is a way of announcing your role in society. If anything, Youth Engagement has fallen off from historic highs. In the 1972 election, the first election in which 1820yearolds were eligible to vote, 55 of youth voters cast ballots. Youth voter turnout has never reached that number again. This status quo as a result of a decades long crisis in american civics. Schools across america once taught constitutional and civic principles as an educational requirement. According to an American Progress center report, only nine states in the district of columbia currently require at least one year of government classes in high school. The lack of concentrated civic curricula in schools violates a basic principle of american government, the educated citizen. The founders of american constitutional democracy understood power and knowledge go together. If you want to have your little particle of the sovereign power that is citizenship, you need to empower yourself with education. The consequences of the decline in civics classes are harrowing. Let me start with another analogy. When you learn to drive a car, your parents did not simply hand you the keys to a ferrari. Its a very powerful engine, a powerful beast. Democracy is like that. What having the instruction course and car manual does for you is give you all the tools you need to know of how things are supposed to work. Thats what Civic Education does. Definitely. It helps you understand the purposes of things but also the grander scheme of things. How are youth expected to become stewards of our democracy when they are not even taught how democracy works . The more they understand through Civic Education, the importance of that vote, and if they really can change things. The fact that the house is controlled by democrats or republicans is going to lead to dramatically different policy. Stepping up, and its really responsibility to vote. The ymca has helped meet this need through its youth in government programs. For youth in government, we play a we kind of serve as intermediaries. We help schools and teachers provide students with ways to make transformational change in their communities. We ask students, what are things that you want to see done differently in your community . What are things that you want to improve . What are some of the problems you think are not part of the conversation at your school right now . We give them a platform to do that. Others call for instituting robust programs of civic instruction back in american schools. From my vantage point, the whole purpose of public schooling is Civic Education, it is to create and prepare students for a role as citizens. It is usually problematic when schools are not doing that. Even others stressed that Civics Education should be more than just an initiative, but rather, a holistic process socializing you to politics. You know, having a civics class or civics requirement is not enough. It has to be something that is relevant to young people, where young people have a voice in it, where we talk about the skills in Civic Education can manifest, and learning to have discussions with people who may disagree with you. No matter how Civics Education is accomplished, however, its benefits are clear. Civics education equitably and universally gives young people the opportunity to learn about how the system works. Our vision for 2020 is for Civics Education to reach the forefront of the president ial administration agenda. We want to encourage millions of formerly disengaged people to vote in 2020 and beyond. When youth are given the opportunity and the skills to become informed voters and engaged citizens, they vote. Because democracy must be learned. What is the ability to rewrite and calculate if we dont understand the civic actions that will secure our future and keep it on a prosperous trajectory . You cannot build the roof before you lay the foundation. You can watch each winning studentcam documentary online at studentcam. Org. Cspan has roundtheclock coverage of the federal response to the coronavirus pandemic. And its all available on demand at cspan. Org coronavirus. Briefings, house updates from governors and state officials, track the spread throughout the u. S. And the world with interactive maps, watch ondemand any time unfiltered at cspan. Org coronavirus. Journal,s washington live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. Coming up friday morning, south Dakota Republican congressman Betsy Johnson joins us to talk about how the coronavirus pandemic is affecting his estate, including the recent shutdown of the factory in sioux falls, where more than 600 covid19 cases have been reported. Marrazzo, thean director at the university of alabama birmingham, on the latest on the u. S. Response to the pandemic. And Howard University president dr. Wayne frederick discusses Health Disparities facing covid19. Watch cspans washington journal at 7 00 eastern friday morning, and watch washington journal sunday morning as we look back on local the city bombing 25 years later. Events from that morning, the investigation, arrest of the perpetrators, and how the attack is being remembered over the years. At a News Conference in providence, rhode island, governor gina romano said the state was doing well under the stayathome order, but warned the peak can hit around may 3. She took russians on creative a covid19 task force and when it would be possible to reopen the economy. Good afternoon. Thank you for joining us again today. Usual, we will be right here every day at 1 00 to make sure everybody is wellinformed with the best facts as possible so we can
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