I had the privilege of asking a former mayor of Curitiba what he thought would be most important in achieving and improving social harmony. His response was swift, short and stirring.
Children.
This innocuous word has tremendous implications. It means grown-ups like us are pretty much screwed. If you think the world has gone to the dumps we’re pretty much responsible. It means whatever prejudices and discrimination that now exist amongst us are going to persist because grown-ups are often too stubborn and hermetic to do anything about them.
The message was remarkably simple: if we are to change anything in this world, kids would probably be our best shot.
So imagine our devastation the day Joel came trotting back from school and telling us how they had called a boy on their school bus a monster because he was dark-skinned.
A monster...
They taunted the boy and then laughed openly about it. He had prattled about it with grins and sparkles and the account was so horrifying I could’ve torn my clothes and swelled into a green, raging hulk if a thought hadn’t crossed my mind.
Kids being kids, they wouldn’t have known how much damage their fun could’ve caused.
Our hearts went out to that poor soul. A busload of monstrous little vultures pecking out the last morsels of dignity and self-esteem left in him. In one way or another we could all relate to it. Racial and social differences are material that would turn sweet, innocent little children into big-time bullies.
Children are our best shot in forging a harmonious society, but they could also be our worst. As parents, the eyes of a new world are upon us.
This served as a valuable reminder of something we hardly thought about. We watch children of difference races play together and we think that all is well. And just as we drop our guard the sullied side of human nature spring at us and sink its fangs.
An insidious seed had already sprouted in them and we wouldn’t have gotten any wiser.
We didn’t know what it was that set off such torment on a poor, defenceless child. We didn’t know how it all began. But it was clear that we’d be nurturing something deplorable if we didn’t arrest the problem at hand.
A couple of weeks later, Joel came trotting home from school with a goodie bag from a classmate’s birthday party. According to his account, it was supposed to have contained candies, cookies, chocolates and all that sugary stuff that would’ve sent his nuclear reactor into a meltdown. If you had read our previous post you’d know what we’re talking about.
So guess what remained of it? A measly pack of lemon-cream biscuit.
Wide-eyed and gaping we awaited the meltdown that came like clockwork each time he returned from a class party. But this time nothing happened.
He had given them all away to a friend on the school bus.
And this friend turned out to the boy whom they had called a monster.
I confess we had been sceptical. Over the next two weeks more birthday celebrations came his way and the same happened—no goodie bag.
Joel insisted he had not only given them away to that friend but had, on occasion, sat beside him and chatted him up on the journey home.
When at last we found that to be true we could’ve wept with joy. By God’s grace things had taken a beautiful turn. The taunting appeared to have ceased. Normalcy seemed to have returned.
Then a glitch came along.
That little juvenile community to which Joel belonged had been caught up in a whirlwind trend where gifts were given in exchange for friendships. We knew that for a fact when Joel confessed one day that if we didn’t pack goodies for a friend he wouldn’t be invited to his home.
Thus began our next arduous quest…
"Jesus loves the little children,
All the children of the world.
Red and yellow, black and white,
they are precious in His sight.
Jesus loves the little children of the world."
Photo credit: AwesomeSA via Foter.com