Young people have to deal with many of the most pressing issues facing our country on a daily basis. Second, young people can, and in fact must, become problem solvers. This is not only because we need them to grow up to become capable, contributing adults. We need them to become capable, contributing kids. Adults have not and cannot solve America's public problems, especially those that impact kids and are impacted by kids, on their own.
Young people bring unique, necessary resources to problem solving.
Young people have a stake around these problems that stems from their personal experiences. They also have relationships with one another that adults will never achieve. Moreover, kids have the creativity and energy that serious public problem solving demands. The fact that adults cannot, will not, or at least have not yet, solved America's problems or the problems faced by kids is certainly not lost on young people. When young people choose to believe the first, they contribute to the crisis of cynicism, apathy, and alienation experienced by so many.