I teach at a public high school for “profoundly gifted” kids, and work pretty much exclusively with 16+ students. They’re all very smart, and range from libs to somewhat better than normal libs (we had one open ML, but he graduated a few years ago). They all think Trump is a fucking dumbass. As with every election, a big crop of our seniors is going to be eligible to vote for the first time this year.
For the first time in the decade or so that I’ve worked here, pretty much every single one of them has said they don’t intend to vote. They hate Biden almost as much as Trump, either because they condemn the genocide in Israel or just because they (correctly) believe that he has done nothing to actually benefit them. This is a population of kids who are much more politically engaged than your average teenager, and vote turnout in previous years has been high. I was actually very surprised at how many of them expressed contempt for the whole process this year, and indicated that they were totally uninterested in supporting Biden (and of course would not support Trump). I’m guessing this is part of a big trend that we’re going to see this year, and I’m preparing myself for libs blaming young people–for whom Biden has done little but make their future demonstrably worse–for Democrats’ loss.
I’m trying to convince all of them to vote anyway, just for some third party that speaks to them. Yesterday, we talked about PSL, Cornel West, the Greens, and Afroman for a bit. It would be incredibly funny to see young people reject Biden/Trump, and yet turn out in record numbers anyway. The narrative that kids are just too addicted to their phones to vote would fall apart. I’ll keep working on it.
No real point here, just 
I teach (among other things) a class on radical political movements, another one on climate science, and most of them know I’m a communist. I still boggle at how much the school lets me get away with.
That’s cool as fuck
I just run an after school program that’s decidedly not political or philosophical in topic but its a very high density of queer and neurodivergent kids involved recently which has been great
After school programs are essential services in today’s society, especially for poor and marginalized groups. Thank you for your service.
Thank you! I don’t know if it’s all that but I try to be welcoming. I mainly do it because it changed my life back when I was in school, its how I met a bunch of lifelong friends and developed a lot of great hobbies/skills. It’s been so hard to get kids involved since covid, but that’s partly because other volunteers to help run it have been hard to come by
They’d never let the teachers get away with that in Florida. Thank you for what you do.
Yeah I definitely know I’m in a super privileged position to be able to do this stuff. The school I’m at is weirdly situated since it’s technically part of a university, and my background also helps me get away with even more. I was a “real academic” who left a very prestigious university to come teach high school here, and I think they give me a somewhat longer leash because of how good I look on paper. Also we just have a fabulous administration who always has our back. It’s a really great job (even pays well). Trying to use that privilege to do some good.