Expanding My Political Understandings: How High School Encouraged Me To Do So

By Ogheneovoke Akpude

Starting from my elementary and middle school years, I’ve been exposed to a mainly liberal interpretation of politics, with influences from my community and immediate family. The main goals of East New Yorkers around me were to find candidates that mainly supported what we needed to flourish and since democrats were more likely to address these concerns compared to other parties, they tended to often lean left. My own family leaned left due to these issues as well as other issues affecting us such as immigration. Growing up in the leftist interpretation of politics, it consequently shaped my political socialization to lean left as well. 

I came into high school with my pure left mindset, unwilling to accept anything if it didn’t align or relate to the liberal way of thinking. For a while, especially due to COVID-19, it was easy to stick to one side due to lack of in-person interactions and remote learning. However, after coming out of COVID-19, I slowly became introduced to new political ideas, contradicting beliefs, and convictions. In most of my classes or free periods, the numerous debates that circulated on current events and even future events such as the 2024 presidential election exposed me to ideas being changed and challenged. Being in Brooklyn Tech High School for a few years, I often found myself in these debates as well, defending my understanding of current events and being in heated clashes. I quickly realized my preliminary understanding of politics was not enough to win these debates and remain woke in a society filled with nuances. With these debates challenging my mindset and my classes equally introducing to foreign ideas, I developed a new interest in adding to my political understanding. Through versing myself in the behind-the-scenes of politics, participating in my schools’ debate team, understanding precedents in Supreme Court cases I hadn’t heard of, and even involving myself in civics programs such as New Voters, I find myself getting closer to knowing how to navigate the world outside of my comfort zone. However, there’s still a long way for me to go and more things for me to learn.