Childhood

That day I couldn’t leave without …beholding it.

I hope you see it too.

I’m not sure there is one word to describe it, but it feels like the sum of joy, commitment, innocence, love and hope all wrapped up to equal the closet approximation I can come up with…

Childhood.

It wrapped its tiny little arms and fingers around all of my effort and exertion for equity and in this moment gave me peace.

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Childhood is a sacred garden for all of our human potential. It’s meant to be nurtured and harvested - even in our institutions.

When we find that our institutions have inverted into operations that deny space for children to be children, we are in a collective downturn.

The principles of childhood and adulthood are not mutually exclusive - like everything else they are interconnected. The characteristics of a strong childhood lend themselves to the development of a healthy adulthood.

Among school aged children in the United States, anxiety and depression diagnoses now outpace physical ailments. This was becoming true even before the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a Georgetown University research study and data from the Center for Disease Control.

Why has this been happening?

How should we respond?

What are the implications for adulthood?

That day childhood settled around me in its purest form, unimpacted by the harmful parts of institutionalization, and it reassured me that the work to mend school systems is a labor of love.

Here’s to restoring our gardens.