There are so many lessons kids can teach us. Things we instinctively knew when we were kids, but have forgotten over the years as we became entrenched in living life as an adult.
One of the things we forget is how to see people without preconceptions or misconceptions. As we grow older, we begin making judgment calls about people as soon as we see them, don't we? We rate them based on their looks, clothes, what they drive, what they can or cannot do or how they carry themselves.
There's a lesson to be learned from kids about this. Recently parents and their children were invited to play an educational game. Sitting side-by-side with a barricade blocking their view of one another, the adults and children were shown images of people contorting their faces into humorous positions.
The parents and their kids were told to mimic each face. The last person shown making a funny face to be mimicked was someone with a disability. Every child continued playing the game lightheartedly, while every parent stopped, expressing looks of concern, sadness and reservation. The children saw the person the same as everyone else, while the parents did not.
The point was to encourage adults to follow kids' lead in how they see people with disabilities. Instead of categorizing people because of a disability, we should see them as we would anyone else.
Check out the video below. It's a great reminder of how we should become like a little child and see people through their eyes.
