I have taught through eight presidential elections and am always surprised that students who are too young to vote pay scant attention to political campaigns and their issues.

That changes in high school. In government class, they are often provided the opportunity to register to vote, a privilege especially welcome every four years during the presidential campaign. This year the primaries seized the imaginations of seniors at Oakton High School in record-breaking numbers. Nearly every student who was eligible to vote took advantage of that basic tenet of our democracy.