There are a lot of reasons talking about our problems can be difficult. Some people (especially men) are socialized to internalize feelings, rather than give voice to them. Sometimes the very emotions you’re dealing with — like guilt over something you did, or shame about how you think you’re perceived — can feel so overwhelming that you can’t get up the motivation to talk it out.

Regardless of the reason you might keep it in, talking has powerful psychological benefits that might not be obvious. “Talking about it” is a broad phrase, though, so let’s clarify a bit. When we discuss talking about your problems, it can take a few forms.

Those surveys capture student thought. Yet they end up in the hands of adults who decide what, if anything, will become of the students’ ideas.

“I feel like some of our administrators and even educators fail to realize and recognize that students are the main stakeholders,” said Logan, a junior at UNC who is the undergraduate Senate’s speaker pro tempore.

“They fail to realize, at the end of the day, the outcome, the decision — whether it’s in the student’s interest or not in the student’s interest — it will still impact the student regardless.”

She wants more influence over those decisions. Particularly racial equity decisions. And she’s not the only one.

Recent webinars by the Public School Forum and Hunt Institute featured student voices. These young leaders noted that they live the consequences of systemic racial inequities every day. And they’re not waiting passively for someone else to fix the problems.

“We have our work cut out for us as educators,” said Ronda Taylor Bullock of we are, an organization working to extend anti-racist education, who moderated one of the student panels. “And we need to listen to the young people, because you all have the answers.”

Students don’t just study educational equity issues; they live them.

Reagan Razon remembers running down a school hall playing tag with friends when she was in kindergarten. Running in the halls was a no-no. But when kids are in hot pursuit with that outstretched tag hand, you run. And they were all running.

“Sadly, I was the only one who got in trouble,” said Razon, now a senior at Enloe High School in Raleigh. “I got sent to the thinking table. And while getting sent to the thinking table doesn’t mean that much, you just sit and think about your actions. If you step back and look at the grander scheme of things, why was I the only one that was targeted?”

That word “targeted” is powerful. Here’s why.

These student leaders say they often encounter resistant comments about disparities in discipline. They sound something like: If you don’t want to get in trouble, follow the rules.

But kids make mistakes, Razon said. Some mistakes are just age-appropriate actions. They’re essential to the growing-up process. Kindergartners receiving appropriate punishments for running the halls can learn a safety lesson.

But punishing Black and Brown kids more severely, or only disciplining them among a crowd, spoils the learning opportunity. A different takeaway supplants the safety lesson: Adults will target me and treat me more harshly because of the color of my skin.