In today’s world, kids are always being underestimated by adults. They don’t trust our capabilities, and expect us to not make any mistakes, and want us to act like adults, despite treating us like we cannot understand things without thorough explanation. But we are so much more than what they see, or expect to see.
The Ted Talk is about how kids feel about adults, and how the adults feel about the kids. If adults underestimate this generation, then our voices won’t be heard. If your parent underestimates you and doesn’t sign you up for an advanced math program or whatever else, then they are missing a chance to help us learn and grow. Our brains are just as strong as theirs’, but they need a few years to soak up even more info and get a bit bigger.
Grown-ups kind of expect things to be perfect. If you make a mistake, they will shout and scream, leaving you scared to tell them the next time. But secrets are never good, and keeping these things inside us won’t give us a chance to learn from our mistakes.
If we try to state our opinion, we are considered to be “talking back” when we are supposed to be good little people and do what our parents say. They underestimate our thoughts, and don’t think we’re capable of depth and the ability to do anything for the world, except the world is in the hands of this generation. In a few years, people who once felt young and spry will be retiring, replaced by us. They have to know that we can make a difference, and not shut us up when we are trying to speak up.
Adults don’t trust us kids with tasks that we are fully capable of, and even if they do they don’t think we will make mistakes. They can’t expect us to be as “perfect” as them when we are actually kids. In the end, they were just as young as us once, and made as many mistakes as us, but now that they are grown up they think that this generation are able to do whatever without messing up.
When they underestimate us, they forget that we are going to grow up and become adults just like them. Adults usually don’t underestimate other adults, so why underestimate adults in the making? If they take the time to try and understand us and help us, then they can create a better future by making us people of the future better people.
In the end, we’re all humans, and humans are so complex in each and every way possible. Other humans cannot underestimate us based on what they see on the outside, or even what they’ve scratched the surface of on the inside. Instead, they should trust us and give us the tools we need to survive. All of us are equal, so why look down on kids and teens as if they are not?