Improving Canada's Politics. By: Odett Maris

The problem… The youth in Canada, specifically adolescents of age 18 are very incompetent about politics. We trust these people to vote for the future of our country, without giving them the right education regarding where our country is headed. The importance of politics should be prioritized as something that is taught in schools. Young adults should have the right to a reliable and trusted source of information through a specifically designed course entrusted to educate students on possibly one of the most important topics to know.

Canada's Political History. In the May 2011 general election, 84% of students aged 18- 19 voted, but adolescents aged 18-19 who do not attend to school had a lower percentage of voters at 65%. Many schools encouraged and made voting part of their curriculum, which encouraged young people to vote. Because this number is so high, the government should really consider educating teens on politics and provide a safe and truthful course or program to do so. 4 main parties New Democratic Party (NDP) Green Party Liberal Party Conservative Party 13 Political Parties at federal level. In 1970, Canada Elections Act, decreased the legal age to vote from 21 years of age to 18.

Option #1: design a high school elective course for politics. Pros cons Students are given the choice to study politics if they choose to. Some religion bans its practicers of reading, listening to or knowing about politics , this option lets the students from those cultures make the decision to choose against this course. Students will have the option to study politics in a safe and reliable environment, studying accurate and try information, not faulty websites they may come across in the Internet as they try to satisfy their interest. Even if this course is incorporated to our electives, many of the students becoming of age to vote, will decide not to take the course. Parents may decide to not harbour the students decision to study politics, even if the student would like to pursue the elective. This could cause conflict with the school and family of said student. The school may lack the number of students who are willing to do the course, which may cause the course to not run.

Option #2: design a mandatory high school course for politics. Pros cons Students becoming of age to vote, will definitely be educated on politics and the importance and weight of the topic, this will allow them to make better voting decisions that in return will help to improve out country. Some parents like the idea of their less eager children being made to take this course. Students will not only make wiser voting decisions in the future but they will never have to face the embarrassment of not being able to join conversations with other people about politics, they will know what they are talking about and they will be well educated on the topic. Conflict will be created by parents who's children may practice a certain religion that forbids learning politics. This would be an extra course to add to the list of mandatory courses students already must take, which means that every student would need to give up one of their electives, and for the French immersion students this, could leave them with no electives at all, unless they opt to have an X block. Some students will have no motivation to complete this course, which if made mandatory could complicate their graduations.

After School Political Education Programs. cons Pros Students do not have to make a huge commitment to the course, such as they would with a mandatory or elective course, this would be more laid back and simpler. Perfect for students who have many courses selected for a specific post secondary field, for example someone looking to become a doctor will have lots of science and math courses and even if they have an interest for politics they may not necessarily have the space on their time tables. Some students are involved with many after school,activities and sports and simply do not have time to harbour their interest for politics. Since it is rather an unstructured program compared to a specifically designed course, it will be less popular and might not invite many students.

Why is This so Important? Many young people are voting for the future of our country without realizing the very serious decisions they are making, how our future lies within those voting ballots. Many adolescents don't even have an interest in learning about politics at all because it seems boring to them, with specifically designed courses and programs we can ensure a safe and reliable environment to learn in. The 3 options that I provided, in my opinion all demonstrate methods to endure that young people will be taught the truth and importance of politics, the skills they would learn would follow them through a lifetime and help them in a variety of situations.

My solution Personally, I think developing a unit in the grade 10 planning course dedicated to teaching the importance and general idea of politics, would be the best option. This grade 10 course is already mandatory so students will need to study this unit, but in an environment that is not so heavy as a mandatory entire course dedicated to politics. To incorporate this unit, we would need to make differences to the planning 10 curriculum, and shorten all other units to make room for this one, my experience in panning 10 is that it is a very slow and paced course, with little stress and small amounts of homework, speeding up the course to make room for politics would not be hard to do. I considered incorporating politics more so into the social studies courses offered but social studies is already such a heavy topic and course that adding such an important unit would not be easy and could put a larger strain on students which is bad for a variety of reasons. Planning 10 is designed to help set students up for a successful future by providing them with the skills and tools they need to live in the real,world on their own, voting and political discussions say a lot about a person and their personality, so it makes sense to put politics in this course.

The Steps To Take. First we would need to contact the school board and propose this idea, from there the school board would need to run it by the government to design the unit / course and add it officially to the curriculum. After that we would need to inform people of the change, by maybe putting it in the newspapers so people are more aware of the changes being made, then we would obviously need to pass this information onto the students. From there we start teaching the material and observing how these lessons go.

End. I truly believe that we could improve our countries future and intelligence by simply making room for an extra unit in our planning 10 course, it's a small change that will most certainly make a big impact. I only hope that it will suffice our needs for educating adolescents on the important topic of politics.