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Changing the World

As Laurence Steinberg, a professor of psychology years. And then adults use that disconnection as
at Temple University, wrote, “the skills necessary the reason to keep youth excluded.
to make informed decisions are firmly in place It’s amazing, though, how easily this cycle
by 16. By that age, adolescents can gather and can be broken. When teenagers hear about the
process information, weigh pros and cons, mere possibility of being included in
reason logically with facts, and take time before elections — even just local elections — the
making a decision. Teenagers may sometimes bitterness melts, and hopeful youth emerge
make bad choices, but statistically speaking, from the shadows in droves.
they do not make them any more often than In 2013, a city council member in Takoma
adults do.” Park, Maryland, proposed his city lowering its
Of all the arguments made against #Vote16, voting age to 16. No other U.S. city had done this,
the most infuriating may be this: They don’t and other council members dismissed the idea.
want to vote. Kids are apathetic. Then local high school students heard about the
For me, this one is personal. I taught social 10 proposal. On the night the matter was up for
studies. And in every classroom, I encountered discussion, numerous students sacrificed late
the same barrier. “What difference does it make hours on a school night to ask their city council
if we understand how government works? We for a small voice in local elections.
can’t even vote!” students would tell me. Councilmember Tim Male noted that 5 percent
Many students saw no point in developing of the city’s entire population aged 16–17
an informed opinion when no decision-maker showed up to the meeting. “If we had 5 percent
was asking for theirs. They saw no point in turnout of this entire community at a city
learning from history when they were barred council meeting, we’d have 600–800 people.
from even a small say in America’s path forward. There are 200 chairs in this room. That would
Excluded from America’s democracy, too never happen.”
many teenagers respond with sour grapes, Impressed by these youth, the city council 15
telling themselves bitterly that democracy is just passed the proposal, and youth brought their
a word. They develop the habits that look from enthusiasm into the voting booth. In the first
a distance like apathy, habits that can linger for local election after the change, the turnout rate
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