Perhaps social awareness begins early, as young as four or five years of age, when your teacher engages you in an activity such as counting coins that, when rolled and counted, you know will go towards helping people.
Perhaps it is due to growing up in an atmosphere in which, for many months of the year, there is less to do than in most places, so the interaction and conversations between young people and adults is a little easier, a little more free-flowing.
But the fact is the young people in our community are aware, intelligent, and engaged.
We saw two stages of community involvement by students this week at the Block Island School: the tradition of kindergartners gathering up coins for the Pennies for Patients program that helps fund research into blood cancers, and the walkout that took place on Wednesday, March 14, that was in support of a nationwide movement asking Congress to support stricter gun laws. About 35 students were joined by four or five teachers.
The walkout was respectful, silent, somber, all in keeping with the serious nature of the protest. But that is also in keeping with our young people who are growing up on an island but very much engaged with the world around them.