“Like all magnificent things, it’s very simple.” Natalie Babbitt wrote these words in her novel, Tuck Everlasting. There is this understanding and beauty in simplicity that cannot be understood. In today’s world, everything seems so complex and gray that it is sometimes hard to understand anything at all. We, as a society, try and over-complicate things when really all we need is something simple. There is one group of people who have maintained this simplicity in our society and that is children. Children are exposed to world through the news, parents’ conversations, and personal experiences. They form their own opinions with what is called “childlike simplicity” and this has extended into this election cycle. Most people write children’s opinions on the election off as a lack of understanding and not really all that important. To be brutally honest, I wrote these opinions and observations off as well. However, a recent conversation with my three younger brothers changed how I thought about the value of a child’s opinion.

I was playing Xbox with my brothers last Saturday, when Bruno, my youngest brother who is in third grade, said “Anthony, we had a fake election in school today. All the grades did it.” I said, “Okay, boys, how did you all vote.” And much to my surprise they all voted for Hillary Clinton. This decision interested me so I pressed them on it. I asked why they voted for Hillary and all three of them had a response. Bruno started it off by saying: “I want someone like my mom to be president. We need a mom right now.” Gino, a fourth-grader  then said, “Trump is a bully and I don’t think the President should be a bully.” Sixth-grader Mario answered last saying, “I like Hillary because she is friendly to everyone no matter how different they may be. Trump is not.” I was blown away that they actually had a coherent response, in fact any response, as to why they voted the way they did.

Not wanting to end this conversation, I asked my brothers who their classmates voted for. They all responded that everyone else voted Trump. They were the only kids in their class who voted for Clinton. This really wasn’t that surprising. I then asked their classmates’ reason for voting for Trump. There were many different claims (most of which were not true) including Hillary supports slavery, she has killed people, and that Trump wants to make America great again. The most shocking of all was that their classmates did not think a woman should be president. I assumed this was said by the boys of the class but much to my dismay it was said by some of the girls in the class. I found this quite disturbing that girls thought a woman was not fit to be president. While this theme has been seen throughout this contentious election cycle, I did not expect it to be played out in third, fourth, and sixth grade. This was the reason for not supporting Hillary that I found the most troubling because at such a young age, these girls felt because Hillary is a female, like them, that she is unqualified to be president.

After sitting there in silence for a couple minutes after they said the reasons people voted for Trump, I asked them why they didn’t change their vote or just do what the rest of the class did and vote for Trump. They all responded that they didn’t care what their friends did and that they thought they voted for the right person. I then asked if they got made fun of for who they voted for. Unfortunately, they all said yes. They were harassed all day about their decision. I asked if this made them feel upset or regret their decision and they answered with a resounding, “No.” They did not regret choosing who they did and would not change their vote if they had another election. I ended the conversation by telling them how proud I was of them for sticking to their guns and not letting others tell them what they should do. They all just shrugged their shoulders, said thanks, and went right back to playing Madden, as if that conversation never happened.

I honestly could not have been more proud of my brothers. They stood up for what they thought was right and when they were made fun for it, they didn’t shy away but embraced it. Being a Hillary supporter, I was certainly happy with who they chose, but if it had been the other way, this proud feeling would not have been any less because they would have been doing what they thought was right. This conversation with my little brothers also taught me a lot about the value of a child’s opinion. Children have this unique perspective on life that we can all learn from. While their responses were not articulate or earth shattering, they were simple and conveyed how they felt and what happened. They also made observations about the election and put them in terms that they understood. Trump’s divisive rhetoric in their eyes was Trump being a bully. Hillary’s policy proposals that focus on equality to them was being like a mom who cares for everyone regardless of what they look like or who they are. They also noticed misogyny and gender inequality and put it in terms that their friends, including girls, thought a women should not be president. This are concepts that we, as older citizens, see and put into very complex terms and definitions. Sometimes we shy away from addressing it at all because it is too controversial. Children, like my brothers, don’t shy away from it but rather they address it bluntly in language that effectively conveys what they see exactly as it is. We can all learn from this simplicity. It is my hope that my brothers keep this innocence and simplicity, continue to stand firm in their beliefs, and in the words of S.E. Hinton “Stay Gold.”