Their Hearts: A Feeling Child by Darlene

Their Hearts: A Feeling Child by Darlene - July 2022 Scholarship Essay

A feeling child.

I watch the warm sand of my home country slip through my hands as I see my older cousins pull their backpacks taunt across their backs to go to school. As the third born girl of my family, my introduction to this world was cold silence and disapproving clicks of tongues like clockwork waiting for the arrival of a son and heir of our family name.

In that silence, I lost my voice.

I found it again, sitting at my school desk with my teacher, showcasing my short stories while collecting her encouraging smiles like beams of sun to keep me warm.

For this reason, I know the importance of an education that sees the child before the academic material we wish to impart with them. For the sake of the world our children will inherit, I champion us to fight for an education system that produces and facilitates the more socio-emotional developed, financially literate, culturally inquisitive, and multipotentialite mind. A large reconstruction of this kind is necessary to provide the resources, knowledge, and ideologies to prepare our children to function in the global economy and our democracy in this ever-changing world. The pandemic intensified the educational inequalities that threaten student development and called for a sense of urgency for reform.

As of now, there is no school subject for young adolescents to identify emotions although building a child’s emotional intelligence and vocabulary should start as soon as possible. We have largely left this responsibility to parents. The harsh truth is that many were not given an upbringing that created space for their emotions or the healthy channeling of it instead they internalized that rage or grief. In this way, this becomes an intergenerational problem. We can break this curse. Explicit lessons in verbalizing and validating feelings as well as lessons on consent can help foster the more emotionally sound child. As soon as a child becomes curious about bodies, dependent on the parent’s consent, light discussions around boundaries on their bodies should begin to protect children.

For older students, we have a responsibility to provide practical teachings around finances. With the current state of our economy, many Americans struggle to buy homes or retire due to their student loan debt and the absence of financial planning. This does not only affect older Americans, but most college students borrow to finance their tuition without understanding the growth rate of their debt and their income level after graduation. Without an understanding of debt, credit, or loans, they are bound to remain in financial bondage. Financial literacy often becomes the privilege of the wealthy and those who need it the most remain disenfranchised. We need a financial literacy course that not only provides lessons on wise spending, but provides action items for the personal management of their finances. Perhaps, then they can enjoy their 20s and 30s without the looming debt from when they were 18 biting at the heels of every financial move they dare make.

Although, there is no monolith educational system in America. It is clear that our history does not include much of the world and the ongoing events in countries beyond our borders. One would argue this information to be unnecessary and our own history to have enough depth on its own, but I would arduously challenge this. The very foundation of this country emerged from the Founders' understanding of the inner workings and flaws of Roman republicanism and Hellenism. By the virtue of understanding foreign history, we learn of different schools of thought, behaviors, and difficulties which provides our children with a broader understanding of modern geopolitics and America’s role within it. Furthermore, it will teach our children that we can discover differences without outright demonizing them. With familiarity with cultural differences, they might be able to appreciate different ways of life in a fashion that limits hatred & bigotry.

Our history is not our only flaw but the mass ushering of specialization as soon as our children reach high school. There’s a call for more room to explore and develop passions instead of fear mongering for a career. Obviously, we must ensure the core subjects are taught, but more independence in choosing additional courses could fashion more inquisitive minds.

All of this is for the hearts of the children we welcome into our system. I believe we have a responsibility to not only produce educated individuals, but better people. For all the younger versions of myself, whose voices are lost in the unforgiving winds of their personal lives, we can provide a calm to that storm. A system that spends time on the heart is capable of this, but the question is simple.

Are we willing?