Wednesday, June 04, 2014

Teaching our Children (Non)Violence

I stood outside the door of renown theologian, Stanley Hauerwas.

He has many diverse articles posted outside his office - including this memorable one about how we inadvertently teach our children how to be violent.

Here's an excerpt:
The (four or five year old) boy was gone a long time. And when he came back in, he was crying. He said to her, "Mama, I couldn't find a switch, but here's a rock that you can throw at me." All of a sudden the mother understood how the situation felt from the child's point of view: that if my mother wants to hurt me, then it makes no difference what she does it with; she might as well do it with a stone.

 . . . too often we fail to feel situations 'from the child's point of view,' and that failure leads us to teach our children other than what we think we're teaching them.

From The Alliance for Transforming the Lives of Children.  The aTLC is dedicated to supporting parents, caregivers, professionals, and policymakers in practicing the art and science of nurturing children.

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