The news is full of stories about kids leading the way on some of the biggest issues of the day: a Michigan teen who helped bring attention to the Flint water crisis; kids organizing an anti-gun rally in Washington, D.C., after the Parkland, Florida, school shooting; a global walkout by children of all ages for climate change.

“Kids pay attention to these things,” says Jessica Taft, professor of Latin American and Latino Studies at the University of California Santa Cruz, who writes about youth activism. “If we look at research over time, kids have been pretty consistently attentive to what's happening around them in the world, because it matters to them.”

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