"With your head full of brains and your shoes full of feet, you're too smart to go down any not-so-good-street."

That 
was Dr. Seuss
(Theodor Seuss Geisel) talking. He left us in 1991 at age 87 but his simple logic has enthralled children, kids, young adults and parents. His colorful books took us from infants to adults. Perhaps no one has inspired young people more with fun and reason than him.

The question then is where do those youngsters and young adults have their own voice to be heard when they have their own thoughts, concerns and angst in these difficult covid-stained days? Our young are brilliant, if not yet enmeshed in a pre-shaped world that proposes to know it all for them.

What are their worries, fears, opinions and ideas? How do things look from their perspective? They have a big stake in the game and should have a voice. They should have answers. They should be heard.

Once a month The New York Times publishes a very impressive 12-page Sunday section exclusively for kids that is filled with everything in context with their world. The current issue, for example, has stories on juvenile detention at the border, the Coronavirus (of course), fossil preparation, masks, several features on race coupled with youngster submitted content on bias, prejudice, micro-aggression, privilege, culture, double standard, ethnicity, history, ethnicity, new school rules, quarantine hair, epic Sandwich ideas, contests, lots of Q and A and original content. It does not talk down to today's kids and is graphic-perfect for it's audience.

And kids have a say:

• "I belong in any room I enter, even if nobody looks like me."
• "Our generation speaks up for ourselves and for each other."
• "I want to be known for being funny or nice, not because of my race."
• "Why are they hating on other people because of the color of their skin?"
• "I feel like I can always do something and that is showing up for people.

It also carries an Editor's Note: THIS SECTION SHOULD NOT BE READ BY GROWN-UPS. It is inspiringly fresh in its perspective and hits the target of what kids want to know because they are involved big time.

There are grass roots efforts of the young reaching out to their peers. My favorite is the web page Covid Youth Project by Rio Baran, a bright young lady from Maryland who I know well. She is my granddaughter.

"Covid Youth Project creates a space for high schoolers to share their experiences as we go through this pandemic. Every story adds to a collective understanding of us teens with diverse backgrounds, beliefs and perspectives," she says. "By connecting through our stories, we can epithetically, kindly and fiercely move through this hard time. As the data accumulates, we can use it to help one another and self-advocate. History is made of stories. We have to make sure the world has a place for ours.

Click on the link and give it a listen.



"Yes, of course we are pretentious--what else is youth for?" Julian Barnes, author of Flaubert's Parrot and Man Booker Prize winner for The Sense of Ending.

"I'm not young enough to know everything." J.M. Barrie who wrote Peter Pan

"Passion rebuilds the world for youth. It makes all things alive and significant." Ralph Waldo Emerson, poet