Apparently, the whole world is watching me now that I am a senior, someone who must set an example for every student at this institution-– yes, everyone will follow in my footsteps, so I better not mess up.

And maybe that’s true, but I am not under the illusion that that linear educational power structure should always persist.

If we only learned from our “elders,” where would our ingenuity come from, our consciences in a world where our history is laced with unconscionable acts, and where would we find ourselves? I believe we have more to learn from the youth of new generations than we give them credit for. No truer words are ever spoken than those “out of the mouths of babes” they say. And it is because  there is a brilliancy in youth–which we could and should learn from, which is untapped and often neglected–stemming from an emotional intelligence wrought by honesty, which as we get older we are trained to abandon.

When we are babies, in our first stages of development, our thoughts and actions circulate around articulating and thinking about our physical and emotional needs necessary for survival. We need to be fed, we need to be changed, we need to be comforted. It is at this period in our lives that we are listening to our bodies more than ever. We have developed a conscience, a “gut,” a feeling of right and wrong within our bodies and our world, and we follow it to a T, vocalizing noticed injustices big and small with reckless abandon.

It is at this period of understanding, vocalizing, and taking initiative of our necessities and “guts,” as well as that which we want-– without fear of shaming-– that we are most honest with ourselves. As we grow older, we are taught to bridle our desires, and we fear judgement from our peers. We begin to do our best to conform to the norm, which means abandoning personal needs and individual consciences as well as lying to others about them and eventually to ourselves–and altogether forgetting our own truths. The children who have yet to reach that developmental stage are often the most brilliant.

It is strange, then, that at the age of our greatest self-awareness and wit, we are also at our most subjugated. Childhood is the time in everyone’s lives, regardless of racial, social, or economic privilege, where most people encounter and experience systematic subjugation, good or bad. This statement may seem rash, but when examining the definition of “subjugation,” we see that it is to bring under domination or control-– to otherwise make subordinate.

Until children themselves reach adulthood or whatever age autonomy is granted within a given society, almost everything in their lives is decided for them. While this is not all a bad thing, it also sets children up to learn how to be subjugated and altogether systematized. Children are told what to eat, when to sleep, when to wake. They are scolded, patronized, and for long periods of time involuntarily confined. Even now, one of the biggest insults to an adult or young adult is to be “treated like a child.”

There seems to be a strange system of colonization in place where adults take care of and make decisions for children, who are more honest with themselves than the former, until they are jaded enough not to trust themselves and have acclimated to the social norms of our society.

In a world in which children can see flaws in our society that we have been trained to see, they have also been systematically silenced. Children are not able to make decisions for themselves until they learn to make the same decisions that the current adults would make.

We desire change from the next generation, more innovation, but not enough to disrupt the societal reproductive system of  modern day dominant social narratives, norms, and politics.

But we are “Parker,” and if the name and ethos really mean as much as we preach, then that means that it is time to look to our youth with greater awe and respect. I’ve seen seniors do some pretty “silly” things in their time in high school-– nothing less crazy than a 1st grader might do. So let’s use as many “teaching moments” as we can and try to learn from everyone in our community.

Let’s listen to the youth. Let’s not encourage them to mold into us, but something better. Let’s build a brighter future.