Spend time with children, hear them out
Ivery distinctly remember the deep, intellectual conversations I have had with my father while growing up, and the influence these conversations had in making me the person I am today. It was how he handled my most peculiar and complicated questions with diplomacy and ingenuity that encouraged me to continue ask questions. His answers always allowed me to think freely, explore avenues and to satiate the curiosity that burnt within me.
One sunny day on the way to school my father was passionately talking about nature. “Look at the bright yellow sun sprinkle its warmth, and the wonderful blue sky brighten our world, and the beautiful green trees giving us oxygen…” I was inspired, and my inspiration wasn’t a gasping breath of awe, instead it was a daring question.
“Baba…” I pondered with the tone I (still) make when asking a question. “Yes habibi?” he said. “Why isn’t everything green?” My father later said the question “dumbfounded” him and he needed time to give me an answer.
“Wow! Mohamed, what a magnificent question. Let us think about this for a moment!” he said, warmly with purpose.
I remember my smile was so grandiose that the tan on my cheeks turned rosy. He made me feel special for asking such a question. I still remember why I asked that question. In my mind, I had expected him to say that only heaven was green – because that was the colour I had painted for heaven in my mind.
Meanwhile, my father, a Chemical Engineer, was engineering an answer as the mechanisms in his mind seeped with creative juices to solve the simple yet perplexing question.
“Well, if everything was green, then we wouldn’t be able to see the trees and all these other beautiful things, like the birds, the sun and the sea. Everything
They are individuals who have something to say, and yet don’t know how to say it. They know no boundaries, and yet are bounded by so many of them. In fact, children are the most vulnerable human beings in society
would be the same. Life is beautiful because everything is different.” I smiled. To me, that was the perfect answer. Adults undoubtedly shape our lives. It is the simple, little things that add up to make a difference; they define who we become by sharpening the edges or attenuating them.
Children are often treated like ‘children’ only because they have spent less number of years on earth. Their ability to learn at a young age is not accounted for. Perhaps talking to a five-year-old about quantum mechanics is a stretch, but that doesn’t mean we should talk to children the same way we do our pets.
Children are the most complex individuals in society and that’s what makes them unique and important. They come up with the most spontaneous queries, mystifying interpretations and demanding requests. They are individuals who have something to say, and yet don’t know how to say it. They know no boundaries, and yet are bounded by so many of them. In fact, children are the most vulnerable human beings in society.
Take away their education and we get a generation of ignorance; take away their creativity and freedom is in shackles; take away their inquisitiveness and their courage is thwarted; take away their dreams and that is their evolution wasted; and take away their innocence and purity is hijacked.
Therefore, I urge parents, educators, and adults to have the patience to answer the questions children. Encourage their curiosity and equip them to investigate and discover the world and its hidden secrets. Spend time with them, hear them out, listen to the universes that swims within them and most of all respect their existence. For we are obliged to nurture a future of excellence — and, it starts with them.