- [John] Everyone, do me a favor, please.

Deep breath.

(John inhales deeply) (John exhales deeply) - [RaeAnn] For years, John Arthur, better known as Captain to his sixth grade students at Meadowlark Elementary in Salt Lake City.

- Do you see this kindness right here?

- [RaeAnn] Has been leading a special project that has become a beloved tradition in his classroom.

- [John] The whole point of this is to give kids choice and voice in their education.

Why do you think adults are afraid of teaching you about hard things?

- Because they think we're not ready, but we are.

- These kids have found at this early age that their voice has power and that there are platforms to share it with adults.

- [RaeAnn] Under Captain's guidance, the students set out to create a music video called "How are the Children?"

that would bring attention to the important issues affecting them.

- We're brainstorming all these things and we want adults to listen to us.

We wanna stop being afraid, and wanting to speak, and being heard.

Just being heard.

- The news was talking about this was the most depressed generation ever.

My eyes were red when I cry, but I just said I was on my phone too much.

Since they talked about that, we started to think of making a music video about it.

- [RaeAnn] After the students saw this news story in class, they were feeling a sense of urgency to address the need for greater understanding and empathy in our society for young people.

- They thought the best service that they could provide is telling adults, "Here's what we need from you.

"Here's why it may be hard for you to fully understand "what we're going through.

"We get why it's tough for adults right now, "but we need you to listen to us "as we tell you why this is a hard time for kids."

- The topic was very serious and relating to.

It's hard for adults to help us because no one's ever grown up with this.

Throughout my life, I've had many bad things happen.

I've been called many bad things.

- [John] Give yourselves a round of applause.

- [RaeAnn] The students never expected it to become a catalyst for change, but that's exactly what happened.

- I feel like it made people understand the problems that are going on.

A lot of people don't understand how young people are because they don't tell people.

- I wanted to put an impact on people and spread an awareness.

- Let me tell you, once all of the kids heard how many views and how many likes, we freaked out.

We didn't think it was gonna go this far.

- It's like that story we saw about students not being able to read certain books or talk about certain things 'cause they're scary.

- [RaeAnn] In a world - [RaeAnn] In a world where adults often dominate the conversation.

- Loads of smiles.

- [RaeAnn] Mr. Arthur wants to remind everyone of the importance of listening to our children.

- We are talking about our kids without talking with our kids, and now we're making decisions about their futures without taking into consideration what's actually happening in their present.

Without going to the original source: our children.

- They can't protect us forever, but they can prepare us for the most hard things that's gonna happen in life.

- Maybe the problem is that you want to prepare us for the world as it was when you were a kid instead of the world as it is today.

Our generations are changing, and changing, and we need support.

We do need support.

- [John] My greatest hope for them is that they take what they've learned in this project and they use it to continue sharing out about anything that's important to them.

- Teach us.

- Guide us.

- Believe in us.

(student speaks in foreign language) (gentle music)