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A student inspired by Gandhi inspired me

I’m still thinking about what a middle school student said to me on Monday.

I had the opportunity to judge at the National History Day state competition and evaluated projects middle schoolers spent the majority of the school year working on. One student did his project on Mahatma Gandhi, the Indian activist who devoted his life to nonviolent civil disobedience.

I couldn’t help but feel inspired when the student said he wanted to follow in his footsteps. In his research, he not only learned of Gandhi’s life, but he internalized Gandhi’s legacy: strive to make society better but do it in a way that doesn’t harm anyone in the process.

In our conversation, the student mentioned Martin Luther King Jr. and the Me Too movement. Gandhi was just one man who started a movement and everyone can make a difference in their own way, he said.

This student is in middle school. Imagine what he will be doing in five years — or in a couple of decades. I can only hope the world will be filled with people like him. But he doesn’t need a few years or even a few months to make an impact. While he was talking Monday, I sat up a little straighter in my chair and it felt like the world paused while he delivered his message. He didn’t need to be older to inspire, he just needed someone to listen.

Too often we, including myself, underestimate what kids have to say. We may dismiss their ideas because “they haven’t experienced the real world.” But what if the world as we know it could be different? What if we actually took kids’ thoughts about our future into consideration? It’s their world too, isn’t it?

Listen to students. Encourage them. When they have big, crazy ideas, tell them it’s possible with hard work. Let them explore ideas.

I participated in National History Day when I was in high school and saw the value in picking a topic I was interested in, researching and presenting what I found. I got to talk to a player from the men’s 1966 NCAA Basketball Championship for one project and got to look through Quaker Oats packages from when the company started for another project.

Beyond hard work, students who participate find a love for learning. By diving into topics of interest, kids get to shape what they learn about and the outcome they hope to achieve. And of course, in knowing more of history, we can be even more inspired to make the world better in future.

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Emily Barske is the Editor of the Times-Republican and can be reached at ebarske@timesrepublican.com

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