You Can Never Get Enough Individualism
(Original)

Anna Zhao
(Age 13, USA)
Okemos High School, Michigan

I am incredibly fortunate. For the most part, my community is friendly. When I walk down the street after school, elderly couples or exercising adults smile and greet me. When I go to school, people are busy and studious; no one hangs out at the back, smoking or drinking, or participating in other such activities. Our neighbors never fail to help us out when we need them.

Despite this, I am not blind to the flaws beneath the surface. In school, I see how people of similar race and ethnicity tend to bond together, excluding those who do not look like them. I see our rigid social hierarchy, delimited quite severely by tables in the lunchroom, and by the way the "popular" people are at the center of a crowd and the "un-popular" people are on the outskirts. I see girls, and even boys, standing in front of mirrors self-consciously wondering if they fit in—and in this struggle to fit in, I see clones uniformed in the latest hot brands with all individuality crushed by peer pressure. I see students well-versed in duplicity wave cheerfully at supposed friends then whisper mean comments behind their backs. Perhaps they learn from their parents who criticize and judge colleagues and neighbors at the dinner table.

My dream would be to see everyone’s individual personality respected and relished. But, how to come about that dream? Responsible children grow up to be responsible adults, and they influence the adults around them. Therefore, I'm targeting three groups – elementary school, middle school, and high school students, since that is where I see the problems most often and since they are more impressionable. In all three groups, I will try to encourage team work between different races and ethnicity to encourage understanding and pride in individuality.

Elementary school aged kids could be given a project in a class – pick a culture that isn't your own and research it. Then, make a collage with pictures of things that are related to that culture, such as clothing, foods, or holidays. In the end, they could present their project to the class, telling everyone about that culture. It would be fun to create a work of art, it is fairly easy, and kids would learn something about another culture in the process. Ignorance produces hate, so knowledge and understanding produce will hopefully produce tolerance.

Middle school students need slightly more motivation. They could have a contest: in the span of two weeks, who could meet the most “new” people, people who they don’t normally correspond with, people outside of their customary group. Also, who could dress in the most unique styles, “most” referring to both greatest number and the highest degree of uniqueness. Then, at the end of the contest, the teachers could judge them to see who had succeeded in embodying the theme the best, who had best shown their understanding of the contest.

Many high school students are very enthusiastic about "themed days", such as Twin Day or Crazy Hair Day. So, why not dedicate a week to "themed days" that would help boost creativity and uniqueness? There could be an Utterly Crazy Day, where everyone tries to dress in the most insane way they can think of. At the end of the day, there could be an award given to the craziest one. There could also be Opposite Day, where two people get together to plan out a way to become complete opposites of each other. The pair that's least alike could get a prize. Maybe there could be a day that follows along the lines of Secret Santa, where everyone picks a name out of a hat, and they have to, based on their own knowledge of that person, write an article on them. Even having students think of ideas for various themes would get them to think about creativity and individuality.