In response to Matt’s remarks about education, a reader proposes that the two U.S. Presidential candidates each sit down with a second-grader and their teacher, and talk about education and the concerns that surround it in today’s world.

I believe you have come across a new way of campaigning.  Instead of all these staged so-called “debates,” wouldn’t it be revolutionary if those people running for office really had to sit and listen to the unscripted thoughts of the new generation?

In my Umbrellas for Peace programs, I spend a lot of time talking to small groups of very candid young people, who really don’t know anything about diplomacy, decorum.  They don’t know what you should or shouldn’t say about “important people,” because to them the only important people are their mothers and fathers, possibly their siblings or grandparents.  Their world is black and white; they see it in the terms of a new person on this planet.

Christ said, “Suffer the little children to come unto me, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” I find that children have more wisdom than our greatest sages because they don’t understand ego, “me-isms,” political correctness, and all the other scabs we have on us as we grow up, mending our wounds, trying to make ourselves look big, giving a shit what everybody thinks about us, possibly not even knowing what we think about ourselves.

So I love the idea of cloistering children with not only the Presidential candidates, but candidates for school board, superintendent, police chiefs, mayors, dog-catchers, building inspectors, ectetera.  I suppose most people would think they’re too important to meet with children, but I believe it would be a great breakthrough for the human experience.

I am constantly awed by the way children interpret this world.  I find that their comments are not only germane to me, but also to their teachers, parents, and all onlookers to the great conversations of life.  Art Linkletter had a program for years called Children Say the Darndest Things.  I think the program should have been called Children are Smarter than We Think.

Thanks for the great idea,
Matt