This is not a popular opinion, but I think children are horrid little monsters. Let me explain.
For a short while I drove a schoolbus. The kids ran between the ages of five and eleven or so. They were loud and unruly, but that is to be expected. Riding the bus is one of the few times of the day kids get to blow off a little steam. They have rules to follow as dictated by parents and teachers the rest of the day, so the bus is sort of a ‘safe zone’ for letting loose. Yes, it makes driving the bus a little more difficult. But you occassionally tell them quiet down and the noise level lowers to a point you can hear the traffic around you.
But the way they treated each other – sheesh! They spent the entire trip from school to center being mean to each other. Name calling is expected but these were digs into each other’s families and whatever the kid might be going through – parents divorcing, siblings in trouble, dealing with alcoholic parents, whatever.
I’d ask them why they were so mean to each other.
‘We don’t know,’ was the answer.
‘Have you ever thought of being a little nicer, and seeing if you could help each other out instead?’
‘No.’
‘Do you think that might be a better way to act?’
‘No.’
So, as far as I can tell, children are not the sweet little cherubs that society seems to think they are, that the world ends up corrupting. (Well, a few might be.) No, they are horrid little monsters that if we’re lucky the world grinds the hard edges off of them.
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