Young Writers Society

Don't worry, there's nothing wrong with speaking out about it. You are right on many points about how Trump is portraying himself, and how this is dragging America's image through the mud. I am partly - despite concern about the Ukraine crisis with Russia - "curious" what the US is trying to do about it with Europe combined. I think Trump would be either "Phew, I'm going home now" or "I'm better than Putin and I'm marching right in".

And that's Trump; he's a kid who could never see past his well. (Kind of like the German Kaiser Wilhelm II who called the Prussian Navy his favourite toy and always wanted to be better than the UK and yeah, welcome to WWI and his abduction). Trump has shown from the first minute that he doesn't have the qualifications to hold such an office. I would even go so far as to say that a democracy is worth nothing if the education system is just as bad. A democracy is only as good as the school, and if there are problems there, it ripples upwards.

Something that always amazes me is that it's always just Democrats vs Republicans, the other small parties have little chance of getting anything done. I wonder how far this is still a democracy when it's just two big powers fighting against it, a bit like a Cold War inside.

But what you're explaining here with the MAGA people is like the AfD people in Germany or even worse, besides the NeoNazis, the "Reichsbürger" (Imperial People). They reject everything that happened after 1945 and continue to see the former Eastern territories, which are now Poland, as German territory. There are still assassinations, there was an anti-Semitic murder recently, an assassination in Hanau that happened a few years ago is still current, etc...

I think a lot would change if you didn't let these *bad f-word insert here* old people into power, but a committee of different generations, maybe even just people younger than 50 or 45; who have a clue that nothing is golden in the middle class and also have earthly problems that have nothing to do with who has the longest *insert male thingie* now.

That is something that makes me angry, that I, as a young person, have no impact on anything. My vote last year, what did that do? What good does it do me if the whole structure is dominated only by old people who get off on taking everything away from the others. What good is democracy if my voice, no matter how loud I shout, is not heard...?

I could rant on here for a bit longer, from my workplace where LGTB+ is seen as a win, to the "women are great but we don't let any into management level and young people are stupid" to these global issues. I'm not saying I would do everything better, but that's why I would definitely seek professional advisors from different levels of science to create the best possible outcome.

Couldn't agree with you more! I do think like 50 ish would be pretty ideal for a president. Marco Rubio was a candidate that I supported in 2016 I no longer do my politics have changed DRAMATICALLY and actually wanted him and very grudgingly settled for Trump since he was the literal only conservative choice. But he's 50 now, so was, what, 45? in 2016 and people were like HE'S TOO YOUNG!!! HE DOESN'T HAVE LIFE EXPERIENCE YET!!! And, like ??? why the HECK do we have presidents in their mid to late 70s? And, worse yet, they're all already rich to begin with and have absolutely no consequences whatsoever if they ruin the environment or government or anything else. They're so irrelevant. A lot of Senators and some Representatives are in their LATE 80s. Look at this nonsense:



And I'm sure you'll be VERY surprised to know the racial makeup of Congress, especially the Republican side >.>



Gee, a bunch of rich old white men are in charge. I wonder why things aren't getting better????

My dad is 69 and only in the past few years learned how to use a tablet -- and still isn't particularly good at it lol. My mom is 60 and is ~ b e t t e r ~ but also gets soooo many viruses and scammed and such. And we're going to trust people in that age bracket to be primarily responsible for modern-day issues that they know nothing about? Like, I love my parents to death. This isn't dunking on them. I get it wasn't something that they grew up with and it makes sense that it's a struggle for them.

But people who aren't tech-savvy have no business in leadership as far as I'm concerned. If your skills aren't relevant, then you're not a good representation of the current population.

I swear to god Boomers are what's wrong with this country. Things will get better once they FINALLY get out of the way, but at the current rate none of them want to retire and its so infuriating to me to see this breakdown haha

Why can't we have 30-60, as like, caps on either side haha People with life experience who are also relevant. There's this kid I knew back in high school who is a complete tool (I disliked him when we were teens aha) who somehow got elected and is a Representative at my age and he is so wildly problematic and has no business in office xD But on the whole, I feel like 30-60 is a reasonable governing age. Not freaking late 80s.

Wasn´t JFK also very young when he got elected? And Obama, too? I think he had the perfect age and the perfect balance between the younger and older generation. I do agree that there should be a minimum age of becoming President (In Germany I think it is 40 and isn´t it the same in the US?)

That´s so true. They can literally destroy the world and wouldn´t fear the consequences. That doesn´t mean that there are not good old people, but they are rare, and vice versa. These statistics are cruel and is only political for the rich white men...

That makes me really angry.

Exactly. My grandparents were both 83+ and didn´t have a computer. I had no Internet there until after grandpa died when I was 21 (There I was already at university, but still). That representation thing is also common in Germany. Some years ago they made some documentaries about politicians and their knowledge about tech and it´s still in its baby shoes...

On one hand, I can see the problem, but on the other, lifelong learning is a to-do, not a supplement. And with all the new things coming in recent years, we have to adapt and that´s why that 30-60 range is ideal for the whole of the people. I mean what will happen if somebody 80+ dies in the senate? There will come another stinky old man.

Couldn't agree more! And yeah, the minimum age for a president here is 35, which I also think is good -- don't need anyone younger than that aha

And huh, I'm actually really, really bad at history. I was homeschooled and my mom stopped teaching me when I was in 6th grade so I've been in charge of my own education since I was 11, and I find history boring, so I know very, very little about it because I didn't have anyone forcing me to learn lol

But now that I've Googled it, you're absolutely right! It seems it's only the last two that have been outrageously old >.> And Obama had been relatively young. He's still younger than Trump or Biden was when they were sworn in haha can I have Obama 2.0 please??? xD

Is homeschooling common? You are the second I know that is homeschooled.

History is one of my favourite topics, probably because of my father who was a historian.- guess the name ^^and how history is like the last puzzle piece to understanding the present.

Obama 2.0 would be cool. Do you have already somebody in mind?

Ah, no, I was joking, I just want Obama back xD But he's maxed out on his term limit so that's not an option. It is almost guaranteed that Biden is going to run for re-election -- I'm not sure (lack of history knowledge here haha) if anyone has ever not run for re-election and almost everyone gets a full 8-year tenure unless you reallllllly screw up *gestures at the orange man* and then it's very embarrassing for him. I think it is slightly possible Biden might step aside and let Kamala run next time, but unless he has health issues I'd expect him to be the next Democratic choice. And, in general, there's no actual competition for the political party of the incumbent. Like, there was no meaningful Republican vying for Trump's spot and I don't expect that there will be a contender for it on the Democrat side aside from Biden or Kamala. And based on the poor behavior of Republicans the past 6 years, I don't expect I'll even entertain the notion of whoever they propose (and hope to god Trump gets a felony before then so he can't run again -- which he is definitely planning on doing, if he can). So my guess is my pick will be Biden or Kamala, since they're better than the trash candidates of the current Republican party and I don't expect any Democrats to run against them.

Homeschooling is most popular amongst Christians/conservatives/otherwise religious people. *I* know a bunch of homeschoolers because there are homeschool groups and the bulk of my friends growing up were also homeschooled. But on the whole, I don't think it's super, super common and I only know one other person in my grad program out of ~90 biology grad students who was homeschooled (it's entirely possible there are more, I just don't know about them if there are -- but most people don't know about me, so it's entirely possible the same is true in reverse).

In general, there are a lot of negative stereotypes about homeschoolers that are simply untrue. But now that I'm getting older and deconstructing (I am neither religious nor conservative anymore, and my family super, super, super is and I'm basically the heretic of the family now) there are a lot of problems within the homeschool community. Like, I saw a homeschooler meme earlier that was just... made me twitch haha but if you say the word "homeschooler" people get this mental image of an awkward, creepy, socially-inept freak that's never left their home. This is not a distinction the general public makes haha but my friends and I would differentiate between "homeschoolers" and "people who were homeschooled" -- because homeschoolers are absolutely freaks and the stereotypes are true. But I'd say half to two-thirds of people who were homeschooled are generally well-adapted humans. We are still engaged in extracurriculars and such and do in fact have social skills haha.

There's a subgroup of homeschoolers who call themselves "un-schoolers" who are wildly problematic and genuinely believe that the best way to educate a child is to just live life with them. Which, yes, great, that's learning, cool -- but it's not an education. So my mom thought that reading historical fiction/biographies was an appropriate form of history. My mom liked doing "nature studies" which was legit just reading about some animal/plant/fact about nature then you had to go out in the yard and find said thing and draw it and then look up facts about it. It was not real science, and I got into an absolute war with my mother before she'd get me biology textbooks because I knew I needed them if I wanted half a chance at a bio career. I got several credits of "home economics" which was legit just her making me do a bunch of chores and counting it as home ec. I got physical education credits just for living on our farm, even though I didn't actually do any conditioning (though I suppose that's the most reasonable of any I've listed so far, since I was physically active from the farm). And honestly, YWS was about 3/4 of my English and reading credits because my mom was like mmyes good you're learning how to write and learning how to critique and yes, good, this is clearly worth counting as English.

But, like, my mom completely dropped the ball with me. I'm sandwiched between two siblings with learning disabilities and also attitude issues, and I'm smart, so when I was 11 my mom just started shoving books at me and being like "go learn" and like, wouldn't even grade my tests? She gave me the answer keys and made me grade my own work. I was an honest kid and knew I'd only be screwing myself and my future career over if I cheated so I didn't (though I will admit I gave myself several re-tests when I failed them on the first try haha). My nephew is now 11 and it is completely insane to me to think of giving a CHILD complete control over their own education.

I have dyscalculia which is the numbers version of dyslexia, and I ended up going through 5 different algebra courses in a desperate attempt to teach it to myself because my mom wouldn't help me. And so I didn't get to geometry, trig, calc -- none of it. Just algebra for four years straight and I'm still bad at it.

So college punched me in the face haha I very nearly dropped out my first semester but then my prof accidentally noticed my overall GPA and was like "??? what is this??? you're smart??? why are your grades in the toilet???" and then personally took me under his wing and mentored me and helped me learn how to study and is solidly 95% of the reason why I made it as a scientist. Without him I doubt I would have finished college at all, and certainly wouldn't have kept my bio major.

So, I think homeschooling has the potential to be amazing. On the whole, homeschooled kids do tend to be smarter/out-perform our public schooled peers because we're able to learn at our own pace. It's very common for homeschooled kids to be in different grades in different subjects haha this confused a bunch of adults in my life who would be like "what grade are you in?" and I'd be like "dunno" and they're like "??? what do you mean you don't know???" and I'd be like "Well, I'm in 9th grade English and 8th grade spelling and 7th grade science, but 5th grade math, and I'm 12, so, I am, um, in.........7th?.... grade? I think I'm a 7th grader, yes."

So I think it's great that I could play to my strengths.

But also I absolutely did not get the academic support I needed nor that I deserved to have at that point in my life. And I think a lot of times -- but not always -- homeschooling is an excuse for religious indoctrination and falls short of being a meaningful education. It really depends on your parents. And my mom did a poor job of it (though frighteningly enough she used to be like one of the most public faces of homeschooling in our state haha).

Oh but is also really old and hopefully, after his term, he is thinking to retire or being some sort of advisor.

Homeschooling is something that is really rare in Germany because there are so many laws that make it complicated. There are private schools though when you want to have special treatment and other types of school, like "Waldorf Education".

When I think homeschooling, I have this positive thought that it's raising the next elite, where the parents are strict teachers and you don't actually have any fun. I didn't homeschool but the lessons with grandma learning English weren't that great because she always had this "evil grandma face" (probably like me in the job as "Business Mailice").

But wow, thank you for the explanations. I guess it would get a bit harder in college, but I think one thing that should be taught to every child is that there are different types of learning (and maybe even creating such tests, to put these in one class together). That would help students a lot in the future how they learn new things.

It´s an interesting POV.