talking to young people about politics

[Zoe Girl]

I had a great conversation with my son, his girlfriend and his friend (16-18 years old) last night. The youngest one knows the most about politics and had watched some documentaries about Clinton and other issues. We looked up some information on Sanders so I knew what I was saying was right. My personality is not one to force an opinion on them so it was interesting to see what happened with an adult listening and chiming in but not arguing with them. The 18 year olds were planning on voting and thought it was important, yeah! We even got a little into the large number of black youth that are killed by police (one kid is black, white and Phillipino, looks black primarily). He shared that he gets scared of being shot.

It was good to see that they were engaged in this, not just headlines and maybe not deeply either but it is something they are paying attention to.

[Gregg]

That's awesome!!! +1

[Gardenarian]

My daughter is writing an entry for this contest: Calling All Teens Who Don't Want to Grow Up in Trump's America (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/calling-all-teens-who-don_b_9098190.html?1453994656&)

[LDAHL]

I think the trick is to gently challenge their assumptions to try and develop their critical thinking skills a bit. The herd instinct seems particularly strong in the young, and they tend to prefer to express their nonconformity in large groups.