Children Are
I often say that Children were put on Earth to humble their parents.
Truth is that children have a way of humbling us all and teaching us too — if we let them. They’re authentic. Rare is the child before the age of 8 who has a hidden agenda or who has learned to be truly mean or arrogant. They know about love and showing their feelings. They know about taking joy from their accomplishments.
When we meet a grownup who can do all of that we call it wisdom.
It’s something to pay attention to in children.
Once when I taught first-grade, my class got out of hand while they were with their gym teacher. She was a new teacher, frustrated, and so she said without thinking, “You won’t have gym class for the rest of the year.”
When they returned to me, it was obvious they had a problem. We sat in a circle on the floor and had a conversation.
I said, “You know I won’t always be here to help you when things go wrong. You need to figure out how to fix this on your own.” They were six years old.
I left the room and listened at the door.
I heard a young man — yeah that’s what he was –say, “We need to find a way to get Ms. A to believe in us again.”
The wisdom of children. We could learn a lot if we listen.
We can change the world — just like that.
–ME “Liz” Strauss
