By CARTER BRAZZELL
Sheridan High School Student
Editor’s Note: The Sheridan Student Column is brought to readers by Sheridan High School’s 10th grade English class, taught by Abigayle Williams.
The fate of the world lies in the hands of today’s children. This is true for every generation: The children will grow up and be responsible for everything in the world. They will grow up and essentially become the world, in the future. They’ll be responsible to fix their parents’ and grandparents’ mistakes, to get past previous generations’ shortcomings, and to be simply better than those who came before them. Knowing this, isn’t it important to teach them everything we can, to educate them as much as we can, so they’ll be able to make the right decisions?
Here’s the thing about children: They have nearly unlimited potential while they’re still children; they have the ability to do anything, to become anything. That’s because while people are children, they can easily be shaped into anything, because nothing is certain for them yet. This is why it is important not to force anything upon children. If someone forces his beliefs and opinions upon a child, that child will grow up to be just like that person, instead of forming his own beliefs and becoming his own person. We can’t force our views on children, or else they’ll just be a repeat of previous generations, when in reality what we need is a new generation.
When I say we need to avoid forcing views on children, I’m not trying to tell you how to raise a child. As a 16-year-old kid in high school, I don’t have any experience raising a child. All I’m trying to say is that today’s children are the most important people in the world, and we need to be helping them as much as we can to reach their full potential. When someone forces beliefs on a child, that puts a restriction on his potential, because he just lost the chance to think for himself. This is why when we educate the children of the future, we must remain as unbiased as we can. We shouldn’t always tell them what’s right and wrong, because that is for them to decide. If we educate them and remain unbiased, they will make the right choices on what is right and what is wrong. And when they make the right choices for themselves, it just increases their potential in the future.
When people grow up, they often somewhat lose the ability to change. They become certain, they finish becoming a person, and who they are solidifies. And while they can still change, it becomes much harder the older people get. This is why children are the most important. If we do everything we can to help them, to teach them, to guide them, they will grow up to be the best people that they can be.
Today’s children are responsible for taking care of the world in the future. They’ll be making the big decisions – the important decisions – that will shape the world forever. With such a weight on their shoulders, our job is to support them in every way possible. We must educate them, so they will make the right choices in the future. We must do everything we can to help guide them. The fate of the world is in their hands, after all.