Why the youth voice must be heard

Previously, I have written about the importance of youth input alongside the adult population.

Recently, I have realised how important and great it is when we get discussion among youth. It's important that as youth we ensure discussion between us is maintained. We must not rely on adults to drive debate on contentious issues, but rather we must make the debate ourselves.

What put this into perspective for me was being at the New Zealand Schools Debating Championships last weekend.

This was a competition which included teams of the best secondary school student debaters from across New Zealand simply arguing with each other, albeit in a somewhat structured manner. The competition demonstrated the fact that placing students alongside each other, with a contentious issue in front of them does not create boredom, but rather creates intelligent and impassioned discussion.

And while this competition highlighted how discussion between like-minded youth can yield some intriguing results, it also prompted me to think of how important it is that this does not take place solely in the structured format of a debating competition. Dialogue between teenagers should be as commonplace as possible, and in whatever format encourages its greatest occurrence.

Often the most engaging and educational lessons I have had at school are when the teacher gives us an issue and lets us have a good old-fashioned (and sometimes heated) discussion about it.

Conversing, even when it is in a confrontational way, can be the most effective way for students to learn new ideas, and learn to make new arguments. When we are put in exams and made to argue for or against a statement, if we have activated the opinionated facets of our personalities before, we will be far more able to utilise them for the given exam.

But not only is it helpful, it's also fun. Some of the best banter can be created through a simple argument. Some of my most enjoyable discussions have come in a casual environment rather than in a planned debate. Times when I have argued with my friends over the virtues of free trade and the drawbacks of fair trade have been fantastic for creating interesting points while having a bit of raillery at the same time.

And despite doing my best to convey the views of youth in this column, there are few cases when there is an overbearing consensus among us on a contentious issue. Just as adults have differing views, so too do youth, whether it be on the sale of state assets, establishing charter schools or legalising marijuana.

As a result, it is vital that we have teenager versus teenager debates on these divisive issues. That's so that we can explore and find our own viewpoints on them, but it's also so that we can communicate those views to the rest of society, and show that they divide our opinions just as much as any other group.

As much as I have talked about the virtues of debate between young people, there will still be those who ask the legitimate question, why do we not see it so often then? Well, the first thing to acknowledge is that there actually is more intelligent dialogue within our generation than we actually notice. Despite the growing presence of what are seen as corrupting influences, such as reality television, social networking websites and video games, we are a generation who take in more information than we are often given credit for.

A large number of us watch the news each night, many read news websites, and a strong contingent read this newspaper daily. We are in touch with what is going on in the world. Often it requires a confronting viewpoint, or an encouragement for an opinion in order to elicit this information in the form of an argument, but the knowledge exists.

We are also a generation who utilise that technology I alluded to in ways which are often distracting, but also ways which create more dialogue than existed in previous generations.

But there still does exist an attitude that, at least to an extent, holding a strong opinion on an intellectual issue isn't "cool" or is boring, or overly mature. These barriers to dialogue within generation Y will hopefully crumble with time. They have done so over the past 50 years, as youth become more liberalised and we can hope that continues.

To reap the benefits of an informed and decisive population, we must stoke the fire of debate from the youngest upwards. The times when this is witnessed on a first-hand level, whether it is around the dinner table, on the internet or within the gates of school, can often be the most enlightening, surprising and uplifting.

James Penn is deputy head boy at Wanganui High School and is captain of the New Zealand school debating team.