The Future of Children -- Empowering Children's Leadership

A lot of children do not believe they have a future. All they see around them is chaos and less than desirable people being rewarded with nice cars, lots of money in a lifestyle that they don't comprehend, while each day the child wonders where their next meal will come from or when mom will come home to care for them and their siblings.

In fact, some of the conditions in which children are trying to learn and grow are just unthinkable to a rational human being.

It is common knowledge that the basic needs of a human must be met before we can seek higher knowledge and ideals. Survival for all of us is first, and once we can get past survival mode we move up the scale to acceptance, creativity, and the high ideals most of us hold true.

If children do not have their basic needs met, including their need for love, they have no sense of worth and can’t aspire to greatness, let alone learn well. It goes deeper than self-esteem and has nothing to do with intelligence. It is the basic sense of worth as a human being; a sense that you matter, and sense of being known and heard without words.

If you are an influencing force (teacher, grandparent, or some form of child protection case worker) for children you know that not all children have the good fortune to have parents who are capable of providing them what they need. You also know that, at times, you are required to fill the gap and offer the missing levels of basic support for the child.

When a child’s basic needs are so great, this is a daunting task, especially for teachers. Teachers know this impedes their ability to do the job of imparting knowledge and skills that will help a child succeed in life.

Since education is primarily government funded, especially for those children in most need, it is unthinkable to separate education from basic needs of the whole child. Yet, there are those who believe this is education’s job and with the current mandates, while may be well intentioned, have an adverse effect on many children who are not having their basic needs met.

Teachers, especially feel caught in a paradox. In their heart, a teacher knows you can’t teach a child well when they live in such conditions. Yet, teachers nowadays must teach “to the test” and have little time for anything else.

However, unconditional love and understanding does make a difference in the life of a child. Sometimes it is as simply a smile or words of encouragement that helps show a child that they are known and do matter.

Love is the one aspect of basic needs that will enable all children to have a sense of worth. Love helps build confidence and esteem, so children can learn and eventually come to realize their true purpose and aim, as well as practice the most important type of leadership of all - leadership of self.

Empower simply means to endow with ability. In this case, endow children with the ability to lead their life. It also relates to personal power. If we ever want to empower children to be real leaders in their lives and the lives of others, then we have to step outside of ourselves and be empathetic to the child's circumstances, which may be completely different from our own, and help fill their basic need.

Empowering children’s leadership is all about helping them feel safe, loved, and know that they belong in this world just the way they are. Once they know this, and their basic needs (food, water, shelter, and clothing) are met, children are truly amazing, and are capable of learning anything and succeeding beyond our wildest imagination.

So it doesn’t take much to help a child feel loved. When a caring adult acknowledges them for just who they are, you then have the ability to provide that child the necessary knowledge and skills for leading their life and achieving their dreams.