Opinion: How to interest and educate Generation Z

EDITOR'S NOTE: This column was written by Michael Alvey, a student at Missouri School of Journalism, in connection with Newspaper in Education Week, observed today through Sunday.

By Michael Alvey

The point of learning about the past is that it helps put the present into context. When I was in school, I spent countless hours learning about the United States' past, but I can't remember ever learning about current events.

During the 2012 presidential election, I hardly paid any attention to the primaries, debates or policy ideas from the candidates and stayed away from CNN and Fox News. Yet, I would watch nearly anything on The History Channel.

I deserve some blame for my apathy, but I also believe the educational system is at fault for millennials like myself not caring about politics.

Voter turnout among 18-24 year olds has consistently been significantly less than older age groups. In the 2012 presidential election, only 38 percent of eligible voters in this age bracket showed up to the polls, down more than six percent from 2008, according to the United States Census Bureau.

To get more young voters involved, schools need to start talking more about what's going on in their country, state and city.

This isn't intended to be a substitution for history class, but rather as a complement. If more schools had access to newspaper readership programs like Newspapers In Education, it would be a great tool for educating students about current events.

Newspapers are a vital resource for education because they allow students to learn about issues that are more relevant to them than something that happened hundreds of years ago, and they contextualize what the students are learning in their history textbooks.

The Newspaper Associations of America Foundation found that children who read newspapers in school and at home are 78 percent more likely to grow up to be readers than children who didn't. This shows that newspapers not only can be used to educate students, but they also cultivate an interest in reading that outlasts their school days.

But it can't just be assigning students to read an article in a newspaper and then having a quiz on the material the next day. There has to be real and lively in-class discussions about current events so students will actually care about the world around them, instead of just knowing enough to pass a quiz.

Teachers should moderate these discussions, but not lecture. It's important for all students to not only know what issues are happening around them, but also have opinions on them and accept that some of their classmates will dissent.

Learning from newspapers and from each other at a young age is key to getting Generation Z interested in current events, active in politics and higher turnout rates than it's disinterested millennial predecessors.

Michael Alvey is from St. Louis and is a senior sports journalism major in the Missouri School of Journalism.