Children should be allowed to vote.

I am sure we will all learn a little something from this debate. First, I will address the challenge my opponent has inferred against the cognitive ability of children. "Kids are too immature to vote" "Neither are they intelligent enough to reason like adults until the age of 15" I will also use the Developmental Biologist, Jean Piaget, in support of my argument. I feel like my opponent has inaccurately depicted Piaget's potential standpoint on this issue. Piaget explains in his book The Psychology of Intelligence(1950) that children develop in 4 stages: The Sensorimotor Stage(birth-2 years), Pre-operational Stage(2 -7 years), Concrete Operational Stage(7-11 Years), and The Formal Operational Stage(11 years- Adulthood). From first glance, you can already see that Children are already at the same level of thinking as an adult even at just 11 years old. Dig a little deeper, though, and you will see that even Piaget says that the domains at which the students reach the Formal Operational stage(e. g. Math, science, politics, etc. .) depend on a plethora of factors including Educational and home environment. I would like to inform my opponent and readers of the Brain Plasticity concept. Brain Plasticity in its most basic form is the term for the brains supportiveness of new connections in the Brain. Brain Plasticity declines throughout childhood and continues to decline throughout adulthood. This concept is often directly observed in children and adults learning a new language. It is much easier to become bi-lingual while you are young than to try to learn a second language as an adult. This is relevant because the Brain Plasticity concept does not change for other ways children learn. If our children were learning about politics and every day economics at a young age, they would be extremely fluent in it. To counter my own argument, one might say "Our system doesn't work that way at the current time, so your argument is flawed". But I would argue that a change in law would immediately spawn a change in system. Our curriculum is made by the state so when laws change, so do textbooks. The next argument I will be challenging will be my opponents argument that children are influenced by parents. "Kids are subject under the supervision of their parents. Growing up with someone means knowing them closely. Parents who agree with a particular political idea will have children that share the idea. " The theory of learning that my opponent seems to be supporting with this idea is a social cognitive theory of learning, which says that our education is subject to our interactions and environment. This is a theory that I very much agree with. Unfortunately for my opponent, I am also very knowledgeable about this theory and the psychology surrounding the creation of our ideas. There are many theories of learning, which can be mixed and matched as pleased, but since it is the theory my opponent shows support for, I will show my views through the lens of only the Social Cognitive theory. The social cognitive theorist will say that who we vote for and the policies we support are based on who we are around and how we interact with them. This is true of ALL learners, which includes adults and children alike. So, is it more valid for an adult over 18 to base his/her political opinions on that of his family and peers? Around election time, their current events, economics classes, and even sometimes history classes allow the high school students to research and debate about the current presidential candidates. They are given any and all resources available to do their research and their decisions are often challenged in debate. Adults over 18 have a busy life; I'm one of them. College students will most likely be short on time to research their candidates (personal experience), while adults out of college are short on time and resources (less access to scholarly sources they could get in college). Students under 18 have time and resources on their hands and are often motivated, whether by patriotism or challenge, to use them. Shortly, I'd like to get into the Argument that children would be voting for fun and will misunderstand the political world. Based on what I've shown earlier, children under 18 may be more prepared to take politics more seriously than adults already (based on time and resources). Children may be less experienced with taxes but at the formative operational stage by Piaget shows that after approximately age 11, children/adults are able to weigh options based on facts and efficiency. The best part about children that haven't paid taxes: Their opinion of the best option for candidate is based solely on what is best for their state or country. Not individual greed. Sources: The Psychology of Intelligence (1950) by Jean Piaget EdPsych: ISBN 978-0-07-337850-3 Child Development: ISBN: 978-0-205-61559-9