The World According to Washington's Third-graders

It can be tough to know exactly how the next generation is processing this difficult, tense era in our country’s history. Toward the end of last school year, we decided to go directly to the source and have Washington third-graders narrate some of the biggest questions of this political moment in their own voices.

We selected four third-grade classrooms around the D.C. region, with an eye toward building a cross section of the area’s demographics: Bellows Spring Elementary, a public school in Ellicott City, Md.; DC Scholars, a charter school in Southeast Washington; Georgetown Day School, a private school in Northwest; and Robert R. Gray Elementary, a public school in Capitol Heights, Md.

While the students were diverse socioeconomically, they were — like the Washington region as a whole — exceedingly un-diverse when it came to politics. In the three classes where I asked how many students would have voted for Hillary Clinton, all hands went up. (I didn’t ask this question at Bellows Spring, but no one expressed support for Donald Trump there either.) Yet on other topics, the students’ comments were far more varied and, in many cases, surprising.

They were generous, thoughtful and eager to talk about everything under the sun: personal experiences with racism, environmental policy, whether it’s a good idea to clone dinosaurs. At an age where, as Yale University psychologist Yarrow Dunham told me, “kids are almost at their peak in terms of being interested in fairness,” the third-graders were highly aware of the big questions roiling our society — and just beginning to put together stories to explain what they are witnessing.

Note: Quotes have been very minimally edited.

On the 2016 election

Mason Felice, Bellows Spring: I’m scared now that Donald Trump’s president, because ever since he was president a lot of bad things have been happening.

Devonte Holland, DC Scholars: I think that Hillary should’ve won because people are saying that Trump cheated in the election because they said he was working with Russia or ISIS or something.

Ranaia Robinson, Robert R. Gray: Hillary was supposed to win. I mean, she didn’t hate Mexicans. Donald Trump did. She was acting like a grown-up. But Donald Trump just, I can’t even say about him. He’s mean!

Makalynn Dunn, DC Scholars: I would vote for Hillary Clinton because Donald Trump doesn’t like black people and Hillary Clinton does.

Daisha Austin, Bellows Spring: It’s not that big of a deal who’s president to me because I don’t really care about the president that much and I think that we don’t need a president. I think that we should be free.

Surya Maroju, Bellows Spring: I think in the future a lot of people will study this because it’s really popular, everyone’s talking about it, really. It’s the most famous election I’ve ever seen.

Nick Salehizadeh, Georgetown Day: I think that if I could vote, I would vote for Hillary Clinton because I wouldn’t want to vote for Donald Trump because he’s orange.

On seeing the first female presidential candidate nominated by a major party

Emma Bower, Bellows Spring: It made me a little bit mad that it was another boy to be the president because there hasn’t been a female president before.

Donte Gibson, Robert R. Gray: If Hillary tried to be the first female president, other females would try to be president.

Anjali Martin-Shanker, Georgetown Day: I really liked Hillary Clinton because she’s a feminist, and my mom is a feminist and I want to be a feminist when I grow up.

Surya Maroju, Bellows Spring: Even though she didn’t win, I think she struck hope in a lot of women’s hearts, and she wanted them to know they can do something, too, if they work hard and they really put thought into it.

To get the students to talk about gender stereotyping, I asked them whether there was anything that girls can do but boys can’t, or vice versa; and I asked whether they’ve ever seen people treated differently because they’re a girl or a boy

Taniyah Cristwell, DC Scholars: Girls can’t pass the gas without saying excuse me, but sometimes some boys don’t have to.

Jewelia Kennedy Thorpe, DC Scholars: Girls can do children’s hair, but boys don’t know really how to.

Vansh Hardas, Bellows Spring: I feel like girls are more flexible than boys because boys aren’t usually that good at gymnastics, and at recess girls always do cartwheels and all of that stuff and boys can’t.

Romario Benjamin, Robert R. Gray: Girls are not weak, they’re a little bit more capable than boys at doing sports and stuff.

Ella Schneider, Georgetown Day: It’s sort of unfair that there are two different sports, baseball and softball, for two different genders. Because they’re pretty much the same thing.

Alida Cuttriss, Georgetown Day: I think that people that work at stores should realize that some girls’ favorite color is green, blue or black, and boys’ could be pink, purple or let’s say gold, and I think they should put all different colors in girls’ sections and all different colors in boys’ sections.

Imani Reaves, Bellows Spring: I think that if a boy tries hard enough, maybe the boy could become a president or do something, like become an astronaut, and a girl can do the same thing if they try as hard as they can.

Dominic Bloch-Prime, Georgetown Day: I remember when I was 6 or 7 I went to camp and it was Father’s Day, and then one kid was there and his parents were gay and then there was another kid who just started teasing him. ... Like, what’s wrong with it? It’s just a different way of love, you know?

Leo Johnson-Goldfrank, Georgetown Day: A long time ago, I remember when I told a kid I had two moms, they said, don’t you have a dad, and I said no, and they said to me, but everyone has a dad, and I was really annoyed by that.

Taniyah Cristwell, DC Scholars: I think that if a boy does girl things and a girl does boy things, it doesn’t matter because it doesn’t matter how they act, it just matters if you care about them.

Leo Johnson-Goldfrank and Alida Cuttriss of Georgetown Day School in Northwest Washington. (Photos by April Greer for The Washington Post)

On racism

Zainab Khan, Bellows Spring: In the olden days, white people can go wherever they want, like schools and like school systems, but black people need to go to a different water fountain, and stuff like that. Or in a bus when black people sit down and white people come, they need to get up and stand up. ... But now it has changed, it has changed. Today, black people and white people can go wherever they want to, like school systems and stuff.

Kristian Wiley, DC Scholars: Back in the day they used to hit us, used to hit black people with the rope, and now they don’t.

Jakara Baccous, DC Scholars: Back in the day ... they had whips and they beat the black man with the whips so badly and they threw him into the pond.

Malaya Paulk, Robert R. Gray: In slavery they used to hang black people up on the trees with a rope, and white folks, they liked that because they didn’t want black people in their neighborhood. That’s why Martin Luther King Jr. had the right to fight.

Alana Henry, Bellows Spring: I have a question. So if there were white and black people, where did the brown people go, like my skin color? Were they in the black or white?

Teacher, Bellows Spring: I don’t really know because I didn’t live back then, so I’m not sure.

Daisha Austin, Bellows Spring: They went with black people.

Ruby Fox, Georgetown Day: So yesterday I went to essentially a black neighborhood where there’s a lot of black families and people, and when I went into the neighborhood there were a lot of poor conditions, like the houses were all run-down and so were the cars, the shops weren’t that well made and everything was falling apart. And I asked my mother why does this happen, and she said because there are still racists and they’re still judging people by the color of their skin, and personally I thought that was gone when MLK died, but it’s still happening.

Daisha Austin, Bellows Spring: If a black person wants to go to a party, and they look like a different person, the security guards might check their bag because they look like somebody else that they’re actually not.

Nick Salehizadeh, Georgetown Day: Once ... in the city I saw a lot of black men laying on the ground, and I think they had done drugs or something, and then I saw some white people walking past them and they were laughing.

Jamari Fears, DC Scholars: I don’t think it’s fair because ... white people have more power than black people.

Malaya Paulk, Robert R. Gray: Some separate churches are for black people or white people because black people and white people can’t share the same church because they know they’re going to be arguing and fighting.

Alida Cuttriss, Georgetown Day: So, sometimes when I’m walking places I see people of all different colors holding cups out asking for money, but what I usually see is black men. ... I don’t really like that, and I think they should make as much money as white people do.

Yizelle Orellana, Robert R. Gray: I heard on the news that this black guy, he was graduating, and ... he was sitting at the bus stop, and then a white person came and he was telling him stuff about things, and then the guy got a knife and then he killed him.

Donte Gibson, Robert R. Gray: I’ve seen people get bullied around because of their skin color. They’ll be talking about them, like how dark are you, how light are you.

Madison Kelly, Bellows Spring: When I was in first grade, I had only friends that were black and brown. They treated me differently because I was their only white friend that had white skin, so when we were playing tag or cops and robbers and stuff like that, they said I had to be cop or tagger for all the time because I was the only white person, and they got to have all the fun and run away from me.

Sophie Kim, Bellows Spring: So when I was younger … I thought that black people were mean to me, but probably in second grade when I learned about Martin Luther King, I was so ashamed of myself.

Surya Maroju, Bellows Spring: I don’t see what’s so different about us. We all bleed the same blood. We all have the same body parts. It’s nothing really different. The only thing different is the skin color, and that’s not a big difference.

Mason Felice, Bellows Spring: I don’t understand what’s so important about different skin colors ... like you have a black crayon and a white crayon and you like one of them better than the other one.

Quincy Gantt, DC Scholars: I think it’s unfair because we’re both human and we’re not anything different. ... We should be able to do the same things.

Makalynn Dunn and Laila West of DC Scholars, a charter school in Southeast Washington. (Photos by April Greer for The Washington Post)

On police brutality

Kristian Wiley, DC Scholars: I saw this movie, and on it was a kid that was running and then he had to call his mama, and then a white man shot him for no reason because he was just running, running. Then his mother was crying.

Anjali Martin-Shanker, Georgetown Day: So my parents have been telling me that police have been doing mean stuff to African American men because of their color, and I just think it’s not very nice, because ... I mean, they’re not doing anything.

Laila West, DC Scholars: Police do many things, but sometimes they shoot the wrong people, and hit the wrong people.

On inequality and privilege

Ranaia Robinson, Robert R. Gray: I think all people should have a house, money, food, a job and somewhere to sleep. Because it’s not fair! People are homeless! I saw one in downtown D.C. It’s really unfair. Some people are rich, they might make fun of others. If I saw someone making fun, they’re rich, I’d say this ... you need to stop, some people might not have any money and you might end up like them.

Avery Snyder, Georgetown Day: When I went to this place, so many people there were homeless, they had no homes, and I saw kids like that, too, and I saw people on cigarettes, and I felt really sad because we are very lucky to live like this, and some people, they don’t have homes, they don’t have a safe place to live, they’re on drugs, it’s just not good, and we’re not helping that much.

Daisha Austin, Bellows Spring: I think that some things should be free. ... Like water should be free because, I mean, why do you have to pay to get water? I mean, you need it.

Cary Stenberg, Georgetown Day: Some people can be very rich for doing nothing, and they can just sit back and relax their whole life, and there are some people who are poor and they have to get really hard jobs and they get paid very little and they get treated horribly, and Donald Trump hasn’t done anything to help people about this.

Taniyah Cristwell, DC Scholars: I think the government should give the poor people money so they can buy food.

Ava Sassin, Bellows Spring: Me and my mom, we just came back from the grocery store and we saw this guy in a wheelchair with no legs, and it was pouring outside and he was trying to not get wet by sitting under a tree, and then I asked my mom if we can give him some money, and then my mom gave him $20, and my mom said he can’t really get up and get a job because he has no legs, and it looked like he just came back from the hospital.

On immigration

Imani Reaves, Bellows Spring: I’m really proud of the people who immigrated because they knew something wasn’t right, and so they did something about it instead of just staying there.

Henry Bosley, Bellows Spring: I think I know why people immigrate. For example, in Russia, if you own something, the president of Russia is allowed to take it away from you.

Selea Millan, Robert R. Gray: My dad, he goes to Peru almost every year, because his family in Peru, they don’t have as much money as other people and they need to get more food and stuff.

Sasha Lowit, Georgetown Day: I don’t think that certain people shouldn’t be able to immigrate, but it might be a challenge if everybody wants to immigrate here because then there will be too many people.

Yizelle Orellana, Robert R. Gray: My mom told me that in El Salvador, a lot of people die, even dogs, because they’re homeless and they had to ask for money and for their food. ... There’s some people that are asking for food, but some people, they don’t get and they have to die, they die.

Dominic Bloch-Prime, Georgetown Day: Sending away immigrants — that doesn’t help anything! They do most of our agricultural jobs and jobs that we don’t want to do, so when you send away that, you think that it’s a good thing, but when you actually do it you’re like, uh-oh, mistake.

Kristian Wiley, DC Scholars: I think that’s good because you want to know what type of language they speak and learn that language.

Anjali Martin-Shanker, Georgetown Day: I definitely think that immigration is something we need to have, because people are putting their lives in danger in places that they are in.

On climate change

Dominic Bloch-Prime, Georgetown Day: About the Paris climate agreement, I think that it was so bad that they took us out of it, because you want to protect your great-grandchildren and other generations. ... Because when you limit carbon emissions, the oceans will rise and it will cover land and then eventually all the land will just sink down if we don’t do something. We can’t stop it, but we can slow it down a lot by using clean energy. You know how Trump always wants to bring back jobs like the coal miners and all of that? Coal — that age, it’s over, okay? But we can create more jobs by using solar- and wind-powered energy. And eventually when we figure nuclear fusion out we can use that, too.

Anthony Crockett, Robert R. Gray: Well, this concerns me because I’ve been hearing stuff about the ice caps melting, and I watched this video and basically they said ... the North Pole could possibly be on top of the entire North American continent.

Cary Stenberg, Georgetown Day: The fact that animals are dying because of climate change, it’s bad.

Surya Maroju, Bellows Spring: Climate change is really weird because you’d think it would be extra hot because of global warming, but it’s a cold summer, and it’s weird.

Donte Gibson, Robert R. Gray: I don’t really understand climate change, but didn’t Donald Trump do it?

On what they would do if they were president

Jeremiah Richardson, Robert R. Gray: I would end slavery.

Marquale Ingram, DC Scholars: I would make slavery against the law, and, what I would do, I would let blacks and whites get along.

Anthony Crockett, Robert R. Gray: I’d help out Indians because my friend Romario Benjamin is half Indian and I feel like it’s unfair to him that Indians are being treated unfairly and I want him to feel comfortable in the U.S.

Mason Felice, Bellows Spring: The first thing I would do was try to talk with all the presidents of our enemies and try to clear everything out that’s happened that wasn’t good.

Ranaia Robinson, Robert R. Gray: I would tear down the wall from Mexico and let them be free. Because Donald Trump is a jerk to Mexicans. ... I mean, Mexico is not that bad. I mean, it’s not like what it used to be. It has tall buildings.

Ruby Fox, Georgetown Day: I just would want to make sure that women are getting treated the same as men and they’re not getting less pay than men.

Cary Stenberg, Georgetown Day: I would stop the progress on making weapons and bombs.

Sophie Kim, Bellows Spring: The first thing I would do if I was president is ... make a hotel but only for people who don’t have any money or are homeless, and we would buy clothes for them if they’re naked, and even buy underwear, by spending lots of money so they can have a fun, happy life.

Henry Bosley, Bellows Spring: I would make it so that there’s only 10 states so it’s easier to remember all of them.

Any questions for me?

Daisha Austin, Bellows Spring: If you’re just walking down the street one day and you see a homeless person, do you ever have your equipment and do you ever ask them questions about how they’re living, and ... do people give them money or do they just walk right by them?

Ranaia Robinson, Robert R. Gray: Is this hard for you, talking about white and black people? Are you okay about this?

Anthony Crockett, Robert R. Gray: Would you think it was a good thing if scientists used dinosaur DNA to ... make a real-life Jurassic Park?

Jeremiah Richardson, Robert R. Gray: If you had a dinosaur would you sell him, if he got big?

Anthony Crockett, Robert R. Gray: Would you think it would be a good idea in the future if scientists decided to revive that type of poison-spitting dinosaur ... that looks like a cobra’s hood?

Leo Johnson-Goldfrank, Georgetown Day: Is it true that for the fourth-grade ERB standardized test you’re only allowed to mark one bubble for the race or ethnicity? ... That’s what my parents told me was on the fourth-grade sheet.

Marquale Ingram, DC Scholars: Have you seen Donald Trump, not on the news but in real life?

Ranaia Robinson, Robert R. Gray: I tell you, I’m extra mad and furious and frustrated at Donald Trump now. We should do something about it when we grow up. What should we do about it?

More stories

Years of tutoring helped my dyslexic daughter read. All kids deserve such support.

Dyslexia is the No. 1 learning disability. Here’s how to address it in the schools.

Inside an eccentric mogul’s quest to save D.C.’s most distinctive buildings

As glass boxes fill the skyline, Douglas Jemal is saving what's left of the city's character.