"Children are the world's most valuable resource and its best hope for the future." ~President John F. Kennedy

It's common knowledge at this point that children operate in a vastly different manner than adults do. Anyone who's ever spent more than five minutes with a child knows that they speak without consequence, without filter (perhaps that's why it's so gratifying when a kid calls you pretty and so biting when they call you ugly). Children also have an innate curiosity and a desire to question everything. While this is often disregarded and discouraged, it's a vital quality in order to improve our society. And yet, despite these positive qualities, we often disregard what children do and say.

Well, I think it's high time we changed that.

I've worked with children since I was still a child- I started volunteering at my local children's library summer program when I was 12. I started volunteering at my local YMCA when I was 14, with a summer tennis program for kids when I was 15 and then worked in child care at the Y when I turned 16. I've been there ever since. Needless to say, I've had plenty of experience working with children, and I've learned some things in my time.

Kids don't exclude. They're willing to spend time with anyone who's nice to them, regardless of race, gender, age, disability, income, or any other potential social divisor. Every day, kids connect based on what makes them similar, completely ignoring what makes them different. Kids of all different ages will bond over a shared toy without even bothering to introduce themselves. All that's needed is a quick, "can I play with you?" before they start playing. Just this past week at work, a five-year-old boy called out to the entire room, "I'm having a dollhouse party, and everyone's invited." Why do we stop inviting people to our dollhouse parties as we get older? Why do we let these invisible, man-made lines divide us as we grow up?

"I'm having a dollhouse party, and everyone's invited."

Watching kids can also help us learn to never accept "because I said so" as an answer. Every parent dreads when their child grows into the "why" stage; it's a time when kids never stop questioning, and their answer to everything is a simple "but why?" I do admit, listening to constant questions can easily become grating. It's especially irritating when they ask questions to which I don't have the answers. I don't know why the sky is blue or why we have dreams when we go to sleep.

I can't answer all of the questions they have (and let me tell you, kids ask the best questions), and it's easy to chide them for asking questions when we can't bring ourselves to answer them. Far too often people discourage kids from questioning things further, answering with a curt "because I said so." When we do this, when we berate them for being curious, it slowly destroys their ability and their passion to wonder and understand the world around them. We take a whole generation of curious learners and we beat the curiosity out of them until they are too tired to question anymore.

But we can't stop asking why. We can't stop searching for answers or settle for "just because". To do so would be to bring progress to a grinding halt, and I prefer to live in a world that keeps turning, thank you very much.

"Why can't I see my own eyeballs?"

My favorite part about working with kids is their ability to believe and to dream. If you tell a child that there is magic in the world, they will find it, and if it isn't there, they'll create it. Kids believe in superpowers, and fairies who pick up their discarded teeth, and large men who shimmy down their chimney with bags full of presents, and fairy tale characters come to life. Children believe in a world so much bigger and better than adults, and I don't understand why we let ourselves stop believing in things.

I'm not saying we need to renounce all science and believe solely in fairies and the Easter Bunny and the like. I am saying, however, that we need to approach the world with the same sense of wonder that kids do. We need to take more time to look at the world around us and be honored, humbled, and awestruck by its beauty and wonder. We need to look at the people around us- our mothers, our fathers, our teachers, our sisters, our brothers, our friends, our enemies- and recognize the superhero within each of us. We need to approach the world like children again.

Children are kinder than us. Children are more accepting, more inclusive and less prejudiced than us. Children are curious, inquisitive and full of questions. Children see the world with magic and superheroes. We seem to think that "adulthood" means letting go of these notions, but I think adulthood is the time to cling to them and reintroduce them to our lives.