Children are our Future

     Today I am talking about an incredible kid with an inspiring amount of knowledge. She is a teacher, writer, poet, and blogger. Yep, all of those things, and when I say writer, i mean serious writer, book writer. Her name is Adora Svitak and she stands for listening to the children of the world, and letting yourself believe in kids ideas and behavior. Adora gave a presentation at TED to an audience of brilliant people, she did this to get her strong ideas out into the world and have people re-think how they do or do not understand children. Adora is an inspiration to people like me and hopefully like you. Her speech certainly brought up some strong opinions and ideas in my eyes.

     As my opinion goes on how to listen to children and let them guide adults, I am all for it. I have always been short and have always known that I was treated with a little less respect from adults. For example, when going to a restaurant the waiter always brought my family to a table and gave my sister and parents normal menus while handing me a children's menu. Of course I hated this, it happened to me till I was fourteen! I wasn't even supposed to order of the children's menu. But the true reason it bothered me so much was that the waiter assumed that I was too young to order off of a normal menu. Adults have always seen me as a child who is too young to speak for herself. But the thing is, even if I look young, I have the right to be respected. For all I know, I am smarter than a few adults and just as well, I know lots of kids are smarter than me. The point is, if the human race really wants to move foreword, we better listen to those who will change the world.

     I was just thinking about the word "elder." Everyone thinks of an elder as someone who is older than you, someone who you look up to, and someone who makes the decisions. This meaning to the world elder is taught in roughly every children's movie and book. Even my favorite movies like "Happy Feet" describe elders as the ones who really matter and control the rest of us. The thing is, what happens when the elders die? what happens when adults posses such power that they make kids intimidated to look into their eyes? Actually, that already is going on. Public speaking is number one in people's fears, and for many kids, this is because they are worried that their"elders" will reject or laugh at what they say. In fact many times kids public speaking fears is useless due to the fact that what kids say probably will not make an impact. But what kids say is absolutely just as important as what adults say. When people say "respect your elders" the quick response should be, "respect your children."

     So next time a kid comes up to you, listen to what they say because I for one have become discouraged enough to not share my ideas or opinions aloud anymore because they are surely not going to make  a difference if no one listens. The kid beside you may have the most brilliant idea but to know their idea you have to take care and listen to them.

     If you are a kid, never ever let your age affect your amount of impact on the world.