The Importance of Student Voice

We love spending time listening to and learning from students in our Civic Voices Fellowship! Students are at the center of what we do, and we are committed to seeking their input and uplifting their voices as we empower community leaders to advance educational equity.

During our March session in Dallas County, we got to hear from a fantastic group of students at IDEA High School who shared their thoughts on why it is important to listen to the younger generation and value students’ voices in decision-making.

Highlights from Video:

“Adults should care because we are the future. So, if you’re not taking care of what your future is, how do you expect to be happy or successful when you depend on us to continue on?” - Iman

“At one point, you guys are going to depend on us because we are going to be like the doctors, the engineers, the entrepreneurs. And, I feel like if you can sort of take into consideration what we are saying now, you can pretty much brace for impact for the future.” - Bracelyn

“For adults to take into consideration for us, it would be a dream. It would be a change. We would be implying what we think is best, and we know what’s best for us. Some of the people we talked to, they had children of their own, so whatever we are saying would probably also help out their children…There’s two sides of this where we take in consideration us and things change and they don’t and then who knows what the future has for us.” - Abel

“I think it’s a morally correct thing to listen to the younger generation, but I think it’s also morally correct for us to listen back.” - Zoey

“Trust and communication and bouncing ideas and opinions off each other is another way to build that relationship for not just the future generations but also the older generations.” - Crystal

“I feel like there is a barrier between children and adults where the adults feel obligated to not listen to the children even if they do have a good idea. They can be too stubborn to admit, ‘Oh yeah, that could actually be used for the better.’” - Bracelyn

“Past experiences have helped us gain momentum or even a little bit of knowledge, and I feel like adults should take that into consideration, you know, our experience and anything related to the past or even right now has shaped us how we are and they could take that in and make a change in the community, in schools, even outside of school.” - Abel