The Kids Are Alright

In 1965, the famous British rock band The Who released a song entitled The Kids Are Alright. The song references a guy who trusts his girlfriend to dance with other guys. There's a feeling of confidence in her and in the guys she dances with, all of which he presumes to trust. It was a hit song for The Who because it captures a feeling that maybe adults can take a lesson from. Trust is hard. Especially when it comes to trusting others who interact with you. That trust is even harder when those people are different than you or you have been taught to perceive them as a threat. Fast forward 60 years to today. Trust is perhaps even harder. Our kids grow up in a world of political, racial, and cultural differences that they are told to be cautious of. The media can even fuel those fears through the stories they tell and the narrative they choose. Trusting your girlfriend and friends when they dance together seems small in the wake of what our children hear and see today.

Our school has a new student with us this semester. Diana is from Jordan. She speaks Arabic and she is Mulsim. She wears a hijab. I remember a few years ago when another member of her family, Mystia, was with us for a while. We were worried then about how students and the community would interact with her. We were anxious that the political climate then would cause issues of bullying or harassment. We watched closely and quickly saw the opposite. Mystia enjoyed her time with us and made several friends here who treated her very well. The kids were alright. 

This week, two students and our new student, Diana, approached me in the hall at lunch. Diana was confused about her schedule, and her new friends were trying to help her find an answer. As we walked toward the counseling center, I asked the two girls how they had found Diana at lunch and how they were involved in helping her. (Diana speaks no English and communicates through Google Translate on her phone.) The girls, one Hispanic and one White, explained that they help Diana in classes that they share. One of the girls sits with her in first period and the other in third period. They don't speak her language. They don't share her faith. They don't have a common race or ethnicity. But for some reason, they trust one another despite the limited time they have known each other or their lack of commonalities. 

In a time when our news is filled with division at home and abroad, it was refreshing to see the opposite in our hallways. It's optimistic to see trust in a time of mistrust. It makes me think that maybe the kids are alright. And just maybe, we can all learn something from them for change.