“What could you know, you’re only 15.”
“You’re just a teenager. You wouldn’t understand.”
I may be only a teenager, but I deserve your attention and time just as much as anybody else does. Just because we, teenagers, have vertical drivers licenses, and you all have horizontal drivers licenses, apparently we can’t understand what we should and shouldn’t believe. We don’t get to talk about education or politics. Apparently, we don’t live in the “real world”, so we don’t get to speak for ourselves.
The belittling of student voices is a bigger problem than it sounds.
Take the school education system for example:
As students, we have no say in what we learn, or how we learn. Yet we are expected to absorb it all and be able to run the world someday. We are expected to raise our hands to use the restroom, but months later be prepared to go to college, or get a full time job.
Adults have always questioned the validity of student’s ideas. By fifteen years of age, this idea of being constantly questioned about the validity of my ideas has begun to restrain me when it comes to formulating my own thoughts. Sometimes I find myself questioning my ideas, and asking myself,
“Madi, you’re only in high school. What could you possibly know about politics?”
Students have begun to question the validity of their own thoughts, because they don’t come from adult minds. Yet, what really separates an adult from a teenager. Is it age? Do we wake up on our 21st birthday and suddenly gain a new mindset and outlook on the world?
There is a definite biological answer to this. Researchers at Stanford have discovered that adult neurological pathways were more constant, as if they were mapped. Whereas, the pathways of younger teens were more scattered, spontaneous, and creative.
When it comes to world problems or dilemmas, teens are criticized for having crazy, out-of-the-box ideas. But instead of making fun of these teenagers, maybe we should be harnessing these ideas. We should be tapping into these spontaneous brain pathways and using them to solve world problems.
I believe in a world of creative collaboration between adults and students. Where adults can respect and listen to student ideas, and students can respect their own ideas.
Now, I’m not saying that we extend suffrage to five year olds... but that we should further encourage our eighteen year olds to vote, instead of discouraging them. Ask us about social security, or politics. Ask us about anything. Remind us that we matter, because we do.
It’s true that not all of us may understand these policies right away, but just because we are teenagers doesn’t mean that we won’t understand climate change... and just because you are an adult, doesn’t mean that you do.
Students have been protesting and speaking our minds on school related decisions for years, but we have been ignored, and there has been no change.
Students: we need to stop asking, and start demanding. We deserved to be trusted with more than just setting up our parent’s iPads. However, in order for this to work, this must be a collaboration. So adults, I'm asking you to work with us. Give us your respect, hold us accountable. I’m not asking for blind faith, I’m asking you to let us prove ourselves.
Now, I’m fifteen. I haven’t won a Nobel Peace Prize, I haven’t cured cancer, and I haven’t solved poverty or inequality. Heck, I haven’t even taken the SAT yet. However, the difference is, I know that I can.
Teens, you need to believe in your voices, and adults, you need to listen.
