Kavvya Ravikumar: Will we leave legacy of shame for our children?

A year ago I was sitting at a desk staring at a blackboard when I heard my fellow classmates discussing how they had slept only three hours a night for two weeks straight. Just weeks ago I heard second-graders discussing how they were going to wait until the summer to play on the playground because they had tests to study for — something that was worth putting off playing with their friends for the next six months.

Shame is a word that is often at the front of my mind when I think back to my school years — shame toward an institution that forced me to put getting the highest grades on a pedestal while neglecting loved ones, spending from 7 a.m. till 1 a.m. at my desks at school and at home typing away.

How long we will force our children to wake up early when even their innate circadian rhythm is against them? Most children are not completely alert until near noon, and we expect them to wake up as early as 5 a.m. to go to school.

How long we will pretend our children live only for school rather than helping them manage the other parts of their lives that coexist with school?

How long we will pretend that they do not need quality time with friends with whom they have little time to connect?

The happiest children are those who learn the best, have the most confidence in themselves and are able to help those around them and, eventually the world, to be the best they can be — to eventually be our future.

Education has this power. We find ourselves grasping for those small places of light, through teachers who had a passion to make us fall in love with learning but also taught us to put life before work, and peers who helped us through dark times when such a life-altering institution would not.

We must spread this light and not expect our children to continue to walk blindfolded in the dark.

I beg all of you to contact your school districts and ask for change. I am not asking anyone to make education reformation their life’s work. However, I believe we all have the power to make a change for our children.

Let us demand later starting hours so our children get more sleep.

Let us demand that they are not doing so much work that they place more importance on their school lives than enjoy their fleeting youth.

Let us demand that our children have spaces where they can grow alongside and learn about their peers, where they can learn how to deal with life’s inevitable situations that they are often forced to deal with alone.

Let us demand they have time to foster those connections they will hold for a lifetime by increasing the time they spend with their peers. Even increasing their lunch or recess time by 10 minutes would allow our children to see their childhood as a time worth remembering.

Let us demand that we put a spotlight on teachers who help our children get the education they deserve so that they continue to do what they do, so that they spread the light.

We cannot stop making demands until change occurs. We cannot leave behind a legacy of shame.

Kavvya Ravikumar of South Fayette is a freshman at the University of Pittsburgh majoring in pre-law and psychology.