[This piece was accepted for publication by the Philadelphia Daily News, but I retracted it two days before press time because I'm in the middle of a job search. I don't want people to think I'm willing to throw my own students under the bus just to spill some ink. To be fair: I teach some great students, but they occasionally say dumb things, just like I did back in college.]
Every so often—and for the good of the country—teachers ought to put 
aside their Dr. Jekyll persona and let Mr. Hyde out in public. This is one of those times.
So much positive political hay has been made by the Obama bandwagon about the energetic involvement of young people in the recent Presidential election that you’d think college students and their 20-something peers are ready to lead a revolution. I’m not so sure.
A student in one of my classes recently told me that “More kids are becoming evolved and understanding the importance of voting”—and there is some truth to this “evolvement.” This past November, voter turnout for 18 to 29-year-olds (the so called “youth vote”) was about 53 percent. This number represents an increase of about 5% over 2004 numbers, and about 11% over 2000. Progress. Still, young people didn’t set any records.
The record was set in 1972, the first year 18-year-olds could vote for President and the last full year of the military draft. Even the novelty of voting, the dread of the draft, and the continuing protests against the Vietnam War couldn’t inspire more than 55.4% of eligible young people to pull a lever.
The voter turnout for 18 to 24-year-olds over the past 36 years is even worse. They have never broken 50%.
“It’s at least half so that’s better than less,” offered another student.
An incentive: “One way to give young people an incentive would be like school extra credit, or maybe holding a party/barbeque at the site to vote. Although it might take away some of the significance of voting, it might be able to link voting with a good time.”
A cynic would say that young people will always have more pressing concerns, like doing their homework, giving their Facebook sites a lift, or trying to score. And those are the ones who do vote.
The American poet ee cummings has said that those who care about “the syntax of things will never wholly kiss you.” I’m not so sure about this, either. Syntax matters.
“I know a lot of college students who didn’t register or fill out an absentee ballet.”
“An obscene ballot.”
“Absinthe.”
According to my students, the Internet, famous people, and parents can improve voter turnout.
“I feel the internet could help a person with politics because on the internet they write articles on the champaigns and put them on the internet.”
“Young people need to be informed in a way that is not so boring. Like when Brooke and Robin (Real World) promote voting.”
“In my high school government class my teacher tried to make us all register to vote. Those who did not had to get a note signed from their parents saying they did not have to. About half of my class did not register. A lot of parents were very angry @ my teacher for trying to force us.”
I am very angry @ this student’s teacher, too. Shame on my colleague.
Of course, the real world—lurking just around the school block, like a bully—will help immensely with citizenship training.
“Most students don’t pay morguages so they are uniformed.”
Dr. Jekyll would point out that polling older people who vote slightly more often than young people (by a few percentage points) would result in similar syntactical deformities. Older people have more access to cars, public transportation, and polling places—but not necessarily to a better command of the English language.
Be honest. Most of us wrote and said some pretty dumb things back in high school and college. I know I did.
My first handwritten love letter (this way way before email and text-messaging) was returned to me with my spelling and grammatical errors circled in red. (She’s a lawyer now.) In college, I wrote a paper titled “The Power of Edjucation.” I also misspelled my professor’s name.
For most of us, it takes years of paying rent and “morguages” to sort out the difference between a donkey and an elephant. Most of us evolve. More Jekyll, less Hyde.
Just don’t count on young people leading a revolution.
Mark Franek lives in Philadelphia.
I know the “Section A” thing is unnecessary but i need practice. This caught my eye on my way to the Cabrini section. I read it over, and just wanted to comment on it a little.(and hey look! A comment button!) First of all I just wanted to say if this had been published I wouldn’t have felt like I was under any buses. This article seems to speak the truth. As young people we seem to do two things universally. One, we say stupid things, and two, we believe we’re invincible.(I’m a big supporter of the latter.) Second, I just wanted to agree with the article in what it says. I think that most young people don’t vote because they don’t pay much attention to the issues at hand. For me though, I found the most effective way to learn about the issues is to talk to someone older who you respect. For me, that’s my father. I am a firm believer that at least some people acquire wisdom with age. Thank you.