While eavesdropping on convo's I hear on the street, in subway cars and throughout my neighborhood lately, I have gotten confirmation of what I have always known about children: their brains are endless storage spaces for information; they have the capacity to learn anything and everything that comes their way. So what are we feeding their brains? This scary question entered my mind the other evening as I stood waiting for my train headed home to Brooklyn. Coming down the staircase, I heard a single-digit child throw out racial epithets like they were a joke. I winced everytime I heard him repeat the phrase "You're a black b*tch!" like it was a nursery rhyme he had just learned.
I wondered why the "adult" he was with was allowing him to scream this out, and then I wondered where and from whom he had heard them, and what authoritative figure in his life would give him license to use it.
The point is...let's stop and think. Before we utter mindlessly to ourselves, or mumble under our breaths, let's stop and think about the cherubic child sitting next to you who is unintentionally listening, the nephew/niece/cousin/sister/brother/son/daughter who listens to your word as gospel. Let's feed our children something different than what they already get from the world around them. Check the piece below..inspired by the incident above. Grita...
Brain Food
Responsible are we
For what comes
from the mouths of babes
Let us take this responsibility
With more grace and thought
Than previously
Has been
Flying fallacies and
False realities
Are what we teach
Each time we speak
without thinking
Age and comprehension
are irrelevant
to the impressionable sponges
that are a child's brain
they absorb and integrate
each letter, word and phrase
that flies in anger, deceit or hate
Let us nurture, stretch and soothe
Rather than decay, shrink and ooze
With our words and actions.
