Kids are Qualified
Adults in charge often discard children’s ideas because they don’t realize how much the internet truly democratizes information. They have this hidden belief that there’s no way a kid a few decades younger could know anything more about their main area of study than they do. As if somehow their education system, one with human teachers who often times said things wrong, no Wikipedia, and a college system still focused around books would somehow outclass an interested kid with access to the best videos and tutorials and who is guided by algorithms that have been training for years to teach material as fast as possible.
I’ve watched a younger member of my family, who’s interested in physics, grow to read Einstein’s papers and understand them and he’s not even in high school yet. In his spare time he watches YouTube and reads Wikipedia articles, and unlike the older generation, if he has a clarification question, we can usually get it answered within the hour. (It’s not a weeks-long process of “go to the library.”) When he asks his physics teachers at school, they can’t answer him. But the internet can.
I think our bar should be lowered immensely for how young people can be before it’s likely that they have an idea that could change the world. While kids may still not have the social skills to navigate the adult world, it does not mean that their ideas are invalid or that they know less than the adults around them. They may actually know more.
Since this is the case, we should start building the infrastructure for allowing children to contribute to the world in a way that’s empowering and safe for them. I’m hoping that venture capitalists start looking for ideas from kids and have ways of allowing kids to create products and use their ideas to shape the world without preying upon their youth and social inexperience. We should create systems that will help kids to test out their informed ideas while helping them transition to becoming adults.
Right now, I think the best mechanism for this is still families. Families often can allow their child’s genius to be shared with the world in an uplifting and empowering environment that treats the child with respect and is cognizant of their shortcomings while providing them with a platform.
This has generally been the case throughout history, because the our systems have remained the same throughout history. I think it would be good for us to find ways of providing a platform for kids that don’t necessarily rely on families, because I think that often the families that are able to support their children this way are the families that have extra time and money. There are many great ideas from well-informed kids whose parents just don’t have the time to do all the extra work it takes to provide their child with a platform that could help improve the world.
So, if you happen to talk to a kid who seems unusually bright about a particular topic, maybe talk about it with their family and them and see if you can help them get their ideas out in a way that’s respectful and empowering for them. The world may need them.
