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Should the voting age be lowered? Why or why not?
JustV
Posts: 5,522 Part of The Furniture
All behaviour is a need trying to be met.
The truth resists simplicity.
Should the voting age be lowered? Why or why not? 20 votes
Yes
45%
9 votes
No
45%
9 votes
Not sure
10%
2 votes
0
Comments
The thing about immaturity is a fair point, but i guess that could be the same for some 18 year olds too.
It is the younger generation that politics influences the most in terms of housing, work and personal life. Therefore, they deserve a say in the political influence that creates the world they live in. However, alongside this lowered voting age needs to be a prioritisation of better political understanding taught through schools. Politics is not currently a part of the general curriculum and many people have large misconceptions about specific parties, which may be untrue. It's important that children gain a wider understanding of the thing which impacts them so directly, and have a say in it.
16 year olds can give consent, start jobs, leave school, leave home, choose their GPs, why can't they vote?
People may think that 16 year olds are 'immature' but like others have said, the exact same thing could be said for 18 year olds.
I think 16 year olds are capable of understanding what the government does. And im not saying this because im a 16 year old myself. Sometimes the government may decide on (unfair) changes that may affect 16 year olds who are in college or secondary school, or working (doing apprenticeships).
For example, rishi sunaks 'british baccalaureate'
plan which, from my understanding, is complete nonsense. There is no 'anti-maths mindset' in fact, theres stigma around those who aren't good at maths, theres a massive stigma around those who go onto the vocational pathway. There's actually stigma around 'soft subjects.'
Not all people are able to do subjects that involve lots of maths. There are things such as dyscalculia which might make maths and subjects that involve maths quite difficult for people who are affected by dyscalculia. Anyways im not entirely sure how he will implement a 'baccalaureate' because education is so underfunded. Which is wrong. Education should get more money.
Even though im not in high school anymore (im in 6th form) it will affect those younger than me, those who are still in secondary school. Already, when i was doing my gcses (year 9-11) there was alot of pressure, and not everyone is meant to do STEM subjects, not just because of dyscalulia or anything like that, but when you do STEM subjects, students are more competitive and might think they're smarter than everyone else (some of the alevel physics students were like that when i told them i might retake my gcses to get on to alevel physics...) But im not trying to hate on stem students, i aspire to be one, and i think im going off a tangent talking about rishis baccaleaurate
thats besides the point im trying to make.
16 year olds are more capable than people think they are, at 16 we have finished high school, we have been through the pressure of gcses, and we would be moving on with our lives, going onto higher education or work. Furthermore, the younger generation are the ones who will be more influenced by the changes the government makes, the younger generation is also most affected by global warming and climate change aswell. So i think we should get a say in what will happen to us. Otherwise that would be a bit unfair.
My birthday is in september, so I turned 16 right at the start of year 11. Looking back to then, I was not mature enough to vote but I also did not feel ready to do everything else that is allowed at 16 haha. It does depend on the person but I would say its fair and makes sense to lower it to 16. Definitely with all the other things you can do at this age
but despite all of this, im kind of doubting everytbing ive just said lol. I'm losing faith in humanity and agree with u to some extent because fucking tories have made everything into a mess. even like more generally. politics all around the world arent great. america had fucking trump. and with social media and the way everything is i just cant see society recovering at this point. but maybe that's just me being pessimistic. i know there are countries such as norway that do prove thst society isnt hopeless. their prison system is incredible and focuses on rehabilitation rather than punishment which is just one change they've made thst the rest of the world should implement too. norway's super cool.
another thing i wanted to add is even if schools do teach politics in school @toffuna101 it often isn't taught in the correct way, at least in my opinion. like with economics, people are essentially brainwashed into accepting the way our economy works. everything is rigged and shit and biased and rich posh white bastard straight males end up being the ones in power. i think a more sociological stance on politics would be beneficial because my sociology a level has taught me abojt so much different political views and it has helped me see the world through lots of different lenses. I'm not sure if that makes sense or if I'm just waffling lol, it's been a long day.
for example, political impartiality allows teachers to make balanced arguments about political issues around the world. it gives young people the chance to gain access to each side of the argument, without being influenced by authority figures. in practice however this is quite hard to achieve, due to extenuating circumstances. i hope this makes sense @yana