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Here’s a quick civics quiz.
Who’s the Vice President of the United States?
About half the kids we asked one afternoon after high school, didn’t know it was Dick Cheney. One even surmised the vice president was Al Gore.
And there are other signs kids are more disengaged politically, than ever before.
In a study for the National Conference of State Legislatures, more kids could name reigning “American Idol” Reuben Studdard, than could correctly identify the party of their state’s governor.
What’s behind teenagers’ lack of interest in politics?
“Part of it just has to do with the stage of their life that they’re in, and the fact that people in that age group are likely to be either in school, or starting jobs. they’ve maybe just left home,” says Emory University Political Science Professor Alan Abramowitz.
Indeed, the study shows only two of three young people believe it’s important to vote, compared to 83 percent of adults. And Americans under the age of 25 are half as likely to vote, as people over the age of 60.
Professor Abramowitz says while young people may be distracted from politics by outside interests, the political parties themselves aren’t doing enough to garner their support.
“The parties are concentrating more on reaching their core supporters that they know are committed to them. And with young people, in a lot of cases, they’re not going to know,” he says.
The professor believes the best way to get kids interested, is to focus on politics at home. He says, “kids who are raised in families where the parents are interested themselves, participate, talk about politics around the dinner table, are much more likely to develop an interest in politics themselves.”
Another thing parents can do: get their kids to take civics courses before graduation. While many states require such courses, more than one-third of all teenagers never take one while in high school.
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