Each week as the adults are talking about the current example of unimaginable violence, we worry about what to tell the kids. Instead of protecting them, share your values. Let them know how you expect them to treat others.
As an example, this past weekend a friend was at a fast food restaurant with her 13 year-old son. She asked him to hold the table as she got the food. After they left, he began crying in the car and told his mom three kids called him an F… Slow Stupid Retard. He is autistic.
The mom told her son the boys probably don’t have parents that teach them right from wrong. They may not be loved as he is loved. They simply may not know any better. But we do.
Hope is not a strategy, but decisive planning is. Don’t expect your children to learn kindness or empathy on their own. As their greatest and most important teachers, that is our job.
We are being distracted by things such as Pokémon Go. We have to be careful or the cult film Idiocracy will be our future. The good news is that when children are born, they don’t know the hate or prejudice that are the root cause of our problems as indicated in the lyrics below from South Pacific. Perhaps, we’ll get lucky and the parents who would teach hate and fear will be too busy playing Pokémon Go.
You’ve got to be taught
To hate and fear,
You’ve got to be taught
From year to year,
It’s got to be drummed
In your dear little ear
You’ve got to be carefully taught.
You’ve got to be taught to be afraid
Of people whose eyes are oddly made,
And people whose skin is a diff’rent shade,
You’ve got to be carefully taught.
You’ve got to be taught before it’s too late,
Before you are six or seven or eight,
To hate all the people your relatives hate,
You’ve got to be carefully taught
lyrics from South Pacific
Hoping for an uneventful week.
Tina Nocera, Founder
