Voices: We feel the pain of the political divide, even in our eighth grade classrooms

Are you Republican or Democrat?

As eighth grade students, we’ve been researching the political divide and have brainstormed ideas of ways to unite citizens of America once again, starting with Utah.

As youth, we face many challenges associated with political polarization — in the hallways, with our friends and sometimes even in class. In 2021, after a contentious political race, students in a fourth grade class had heard of some of the conflicts between candidates and began debating over who should have won the election and who was “better.” We saw that this eventually led to verbal bullying, hate and division between students. Friendships were dissolved, and the teacher had to be careful about who worked together in class.

Experiences like these have caused us to feel shame for speaking up, and they’ve created confusion on what to believe. As youth, we know that we often feel tension with such topics and, unlike elementary school, now we just avoid talking about them. We feel forced to believe in what one side is saying without being offered the time to form our own beliefs. The social pressures of choosing what to believe makes for a loss of choice in everyday actions. For example, each of us has had to think twice before speaking up in class out of fear of other students’ judgements and reactions. We aren’t always comfortable sharing our opinions or asking questions because we don’t know what the repercussions will be.

We believe that Utahns and Americans of all ages have had similar experiences.

Over the past 60 years, there has been a significant increase in the amount of displeasure when considering a marriage between members from the two main political parties. In 1960, only 4% of Republicans and Democrats disapproved of their child marrying someone from the opposite party. Those numbers drastically increased to 35% for the Republicans and 45% for the Democrats in 2019.

Politics have become priority number one, even over love.

We believe the media plays a big role when it comes to political polarization. Extreme media outlets will often show information that is only relevant to one side, instead of communicating and sharing information from both sides. This leads to consumers having tunnel vision, which clouds the variety of backgrounds and perspectives that we could learn about and choose to believe.

Aggression has also been present more than ever in the past few elections because of the increasing political separation. Violence has numbed many children and has the potential to do more damage in the future.

As the rising generation, we dislike the way the world is split into such clear factions. We aren’t just worried about our future, we’re concerned about the generations to come. As we continue to bicker, the divide between the two sides deepens. Our political views now are shaping the future that we are all set to live in.

If change doesn’t start now, what kind of a world will this become?

In our ideal world, people would listen to each other, recognize the person underneath the label and accept each other for who they are as a person — not their political party.

How can people make a difference? How can we all solve this issue? We, as eighth graders, believe that unity and respect are two impactful ways to help solve polarization.

Respect is something valuable that can be shown whenever and wherever. We can treat people as equals by acting in a manner of love. We can have appropriate communication with those around us, especially family and friends. We can respect another person’s boundaries, even if we don’t understand why they have them. Instead of belittling those who have different viewpoints than we do, we can patiently listen and gently share our own opinion without trying to disprove their views.

Unity is when people connect around a shared goal — such as remembering who we are as Americans before labeling ourselves politically. We can develop unity by doing small things, like spending time in our communities, talking to people and serving our neighbors. We can be a unified nation without having the same beliefs if we show kindness, empathy and understanding.

We think that citizens of the USA, starting in Utah, could do little things to demonstrate civic virtue — take unselfish actions that show personal devotion to our country.

Our hope is that these seemingly insignificant acts will help to unite us as people, not parties, and clear up the resounding effects of political polarization.

With all of us working together, our actions will be very significant. Let us all set an example and make a difference in the ever growing societies of our world today. We — the youth of today and the children of the future — are counting on you.

Brooke is an eighth grader at Springville Jr. High School. She hopes for a future of kindness for everyone, no matter where they stand politically or socially.

Audri is an eighth grader at Springville Jr. High School. She believes that, if our world puts the effort, in we can make a lasting change.

Margaret is an eighth grader at Springville Jr. High School. She wishes to improve the wellbeing of the world by starting small.

The authors wrote this on behalf of Mrs. Smith’s Spring 2025 U.S. History Classes at Springville Jr. High School.

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