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Stop Disengaging Young People

Youth feel more a part of their community when respect is demonstrated to them by giving them a voice. The co-Directors of CBU’s Children’s Rights Centre, Professor Brian Howe (Political Science) and Professor Katherine Covell (Psychology) have demonstrated this in their research on youth civic participation and youth participation in the educational system. Howe and Covell have recently published two books on the topic of children’s rights and empowerment, leading to an invitation to present their research at an international conference on children’s rights at Columbia University on April 4, 2008. The theme of the conference was ‘The Child’s Right to Participation: Ethical Challenges’ and it was the culmination of ‘Child Rights Week’ at Columbia University.

Recent research by Howe and Covell has demonstrated that the key predictor of teacher satisfaction and reduced stress is student participation in all aspects of the classroom and school. Why, then, do most of our educators continue to disregard the voices of the students and complain about disengaged and misbehaving young people? Covell’s message to the conference delegates about children’s participation in their education was that there is a large gap between knowledge and practice. Very few teachers and principals are comfortable with allowing young people a voice in schools. She explored the reasons for this divergence.

A similar situation exists in youth civic participation. Youth feel more respected and more a part of their community when respect is demonstrated to them by giving them a voice. Howe outlined the current situation, where we have seen growing efforts to give youth a voice through youth advisory committees, periodic consultations on issues, and programs such as the Student Vote program in Canada (students have a mock vote in federal and provincial elections).

Despite apparent progress, youth participation is not institutionalized which means that it depends on the good will and periodic enthusiasm of adults. If article 12 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child was put into law, youth would have a right to be heard in matters that affect them and governments would have an obligation to provide opportunities for youth input. This is important not only for reasons of international law (complying with the Convention) but also for the impact of youth contribution to better community and political decision-making.

We need to consider carefully why most of our schools continue to disregard the voices of students but continue to complain about disengaged and misbehaving young people.

Covell and Howe’s two most recent books are:
1. A question of commitment: children’s rights in Canada (Wilfred Laurier University Press, 2007)
2. Empowering children: children’s rights education as a pathway to citizenship (University of Toronto Press, 2005).