Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Students DO know more about politics than American Idol!


Warped ONE supporters
Originally uploaded by Brande Jackson.
Which isn't to say we are knocking American Idol - it's not my thing, but they are doing a huge promotional event to help raise awareness for ONE and former Idol Chris Daughtry is now a huge ONE supporter. But remember that old 'statistic' thrown around in 04 claiming more people voted for AI than President? Turns out it probably wasn't all that accurate.

This is a repost from the Rock the Vote Blog - good news for those of us whom know that youth are active in a wide variety of social justice causes!

Here is what the report found:

“The stereotype of the self-involved, culture-obsessed U.S. college student is wrong, according to a new study.

American college students today are actually very engaged in politics to the point that they are much more likely to know the names of their U.S. senators or congressional representatives than the names of winners of "American Idol," says political scientist Kent E. Portney of Tufts University.

His analysis of a national survey of 1,000 non-military men and women ages 18 to 24 included equal mixes of college students and non-college students and drew upbeat conclusions about the youngest cohort of potential voters.

"Young people seem to know more about politics than they know about popular culture," he said in a prepared statement. "This level of political knowledge stands in stark contrast to the image of young people as uninterested in and ignorant about politics and government."

You can find the full report here. This report only takes into consideration youth of voting age – and we know from first hand experience how involved and active high school students (and many youth even far younger than that, including our third graders involved with Lokahi’s after school programs!) are in the political process as well.

Anyway, some uplifting news as we get ready to launch into our summer outreach season. As always, stay tuned for more updates, and don’t forget to email us if you want to
volunteer!




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