At this week's Round Table, Erina, Jack, Kenisha, and Madeline spoke with the leaders of our Next Gen Politics’ Rancho Bernardo Chapter: Khushi Patel and Chelsea Reilly. Their community is VERY divided along partisan lines, which carries over into school unfortunately. At a time when many issues are deeply polarized–from vaccines to politics–they had no platform to discuss things with their peers as their teachers avoided such things during the school day. Things had become very divided and divisive with no arena for meaningful conversation to bridge the gaps. People were pushed to extremes of left and right without middle ground for mature conversations–and to have fun through them. And so a year ago, Khushi and Chelsea decided to take this on by building a Next Gen Politics chapter to talk about hot topics in non polarized ways. And it’s been going gangbusters! We talked about what civic engagement– and lack thereof– looks like in high school, how to make politics less intimidating and more engaging, how to bring participants together across broad ideological differences, the power of youth networks, and how more empathy can transform the nation. Thank you for listening!
