Learning From Children

"He who teaches children learns more than they do" – German Proverb

They always say that teaching is the most rewarding profession, and that being a parent is the hardest job you will ever have.  It is true that when teaching or raising a child that you learn more from them than they do from you.  Children are each unique and true to themselves, unspoiled by much of life. However their eyes and ears are open wide, seeing and hearing all we do not.  They live in the present and not the past, yet they are always fixed on the future.  To children life is not race, but a journey.

Children can teach us how to laugh and smile in the face of adversity, to run and play in the face of disaster and war.  Children suffer disproportionately in the face of disaster, war and poverty, yet children still know how to laugh and smile. They rarely need much to smile or laugh about, they do it because they have not forgotten the power for which it holds to heal.  While some children may have an abundance of toys and games, others have little to none, but all are spontaneous and know how to make anything fun, something we all too often forget as adults.

Children are constantly learning, their fascination and curiosity, makes every moment a learning adventure, as they take  in each and every detail and moment of life.  Have you every notice how it is children who notice the small details, who seem to be constantly reminding us of what we said and did?  They do not shut off and zone out the way one does in adulthood, as we are caught up in our countless lists and meetings, but children find excitement in every experience and thus they take it all in.  Children truly remember to 'stop and smell the roses’. The inherent nature of a child is one of acceptance, they see the world with out prejudices…there is no color or class to a child, they ask or care not of ones religion or political views, they only care if you are nice.

Children are also inherently resilient and determined, they know how to fight in the face of adversity, they go after the things they want regardless of how difficult or what anyone says. So often you see a child battling a disease and they fight with the strength and courage that no adult can. Children of the most horrendous violence and suffrage purse in the face of it all to achieve what so many call the impossible, and they. If they want, they don't quit. Their persistence is really something to be admired, as well as endured. Children just keep keep going, they keep fighting, they see no other way and they do not look back as their eyes and minds are fixed on the future.

I have come across so many young people, who's childhood is one few could imagine and in their young lives they have achieved more than most and all in the face of adversity. We have much to learn from the children around us, and thus we must first learn to look at the world through the eyes of a child and then we can begin to heal the wounds and work for the rights of all of humanity.