Letter: High schools need to teach politics and government

I have learned more about how our economy’s politics work, as well as the many different types of groups and political parties that we have, in the last two and a half months in my American government class at Columbia Basin College, then in my whole life.

Before taking this class, I only knew that a couple of people run against each other to try and get elected into office as president, and that it’ll come down to two people running against each other, one under the name of Republican, and the other is Democratic. Up until a few months ago, I didn’t understand the different platforms that each of these candidates stand for.

Why couldn’t they teach me all this while I was in high school? Instead of learning about how our economy works, I learn about the basic global warming and deforestation. But how will learning about those teach me the way our society runs?

Kids who are fresh out of high school are more than likely not going to know anything about politics and the way elections go. Wouldn’t it be better if we learned this stuff so we have a better understanding about our society?

This story was originally published December 3, 2015 at 5:11 PM with the headline "Letter: High schools need to teach politics and government."