On Being Taught by eleven year olds (From Watford Observer)
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written By Catriona Reid
12:40pm Wednesday 17th June 2009 in Connections
On Being Taught By 11 Year Olds.
11 year olds are pretty smart. This week on encouraging them to do an act of kindness, I told them about my recent bout of jealousy towards a pretty girl and how in overcoming that and being kind towards her, I’d made a new friend. I don’t think I was prepared for the onslaught I got. For about ten minutes I was told that being jealous was very immature of me and that I should have just been nice from the beginning. This has made me grin hugely.
So often we think we can teach the younger generation everything, when in actual fact they can often teach us a lot more. A friend upon talking about a recent youth evening said that the team of youth planned the entire event, worked together as a team and it went amazingly as a result of that. So often as adults, we let small and insignificant things come in the way of working in unity when people half our age are actually getting it right. Why fight over exactly where the tea stand should be at an event, when really we should be enjoying working together and focusing on being a family.
I’m sure we benefit from our experience and our ‘years of wisdom.’ We’ve made more mistakes, we’ve got more things right, and we’ve survived for much longer. However, I don’t think we should lose that childlike passion. Call things as you see it, but with tact. Be curious, pursue new things, challenge people- no matter their authority over you if you think what they are doing is wrong. Support and encourage those around you, even if they aren’t in the same circle of people as you.
Use those years of experience to do it with a mature sense of grace and style, but don’t abandon that childlike knack of getting stuck in. I am fiercely proud of those girls for challenging me, for challenging themselves and for first and foremost dealing with everything with love.
If they continue in this way, the next generation is looking bright.
