Stop Talking to Us; Start Talking with Us | Ezra Anglin | TEDxPaul Laurence Dunbar HS Youth

Quick Overview

Ezra Anglin argues that youth voice in political decision-making, particularly regarding education and local governance, is systematically undervalued by adults, citing that 81% of youth surveyed felt excluded from decisions affecting them, and he encourages involving young people—who are the future stakeholders—in shaping policies rather than just treating them as decorations.

Key Points: Student council elections are often treated as popularity contests, not serious civic engagement, leading to youth feeling unheard. A 2014 University of Kentucky study found that 81% of students felt excluded from decisions affecting them, compared to only 42% of adults. The speaker, Ezra Anglin, discovered this exclusion when a politician he volunteered for dismissed his input during the 2012 Senate campaign. The youth voice is crucial because young people are the future stakeholders in decisions about education, technology, and the economy. The Kentucky Student Voice Team, a nonprofit focused on education equity, advocates for involving students in policy decisions. Adult leaders often fail to value youth perspectives, leading to policies that are detached from youth reality, such as the Kentucky Senate floor rejecting a bill that would have required student advisory roles on school boards.

Context: Ezra Anglin, a young activist and co-founder of the 30 Under 30 and White House Kids initiatives, delivers a TEDx talk at Paul Laurence Dunbar High School focusing on the critical need to incorporate genuine youth voice into political and civic processes. He contrasts the perceived importance of youth input with the reality of adult leaders often ignoring or dismissing their perspectives, using personal anecdotes and survey data to illustrate the problem of youth disenfranchisement.

Detailed Analysis

Ezra Anglin argues that youth voices are systematically sidelined in political and civic decisions, despite young people being the primary stakeholders in the future these decisions shape. He opens by noting that student council elections often devolve into popularity contests rather than serious civic exercises. Anglin references a 2014 survey from the University of Kentucky Student Voice Team which found that 81% of students felt excluded from decisions affecting them, vastly higher than the 42% of adults who felt the same way. He shares a personal story of feeling dismissed when volunteering for a campaign, illustrating how politicians—even those endorsed by youth groups—often fail to genuinely integrate young perspectives. Anglin contends that democracy is a fragile structure that requires reinforcement through the inclusion of youth input, not just token representation. He concludes by urging that youth empowerment must exceed adult leadership, emphasizing that young people can offer solutions to problems that older generations overlook, stressing that they do not need permission to act, but rather need to be heard at the table.