The Wildflower Lesson Every Child Needs

At the beginning of 2024, I showed a group of children I worked with two photos: one of a sunflower field and the other of a wildflower meadow. I asked them what they noticed.

They quickly pointed out that the sunflowers were all the same, while the flowers in the meadow came in different colours, shapes, and sizes.

That’s exactly what I hoped they’d see. I explained that the world often tells them they need to act or be a certain way to fit in, like sunflowers planted in neat rows. The wildflower meadow, on the other hand, was how I saw them: a diverse group of children, each brilliantly unique.

What I love about this metaphor is that it’s not just about individuality. Unlike the sunflower field, planted and tended by a farmer for profit, the wildflower meadow is a natural ecosystem whose purpose is simply life. Its strength lies in diversity, and in how all the different parts work together to sustain the whole. Each flower contributes in its own way, providing food for pollinators, habitat for insects, or nutrients for the soil. Every plant is both unique and essential.

Children are the same. Given the right conditions, each one brings something valuable to the communities they are part of. One might be an artist creating zines about protecting local wildlife. Another might be a writer drafting letters to the government about inequality. Another might be a waste warrior, cleaning up the beach every weekend. Their power lies in their diversity and in how they use their gifts to care, connect, and take action for a better world.

At first, I wasn’t sure how the wildflower metaphor would land with the children, but it stuck. They kept coming back to it, and in the end, they chose flowers as the theme for our end-of-year celebration.

That’s what Meg and the Wildflowers grew out of: the belief that when children are free to bloom in their own way and share their gifts, they make the world more vibrant, resilient, and alive.