Why are Children Evil?
We love our children. In fact, Americans may love their children too much if over indulgence is an indicator of love (which it isn’t). Even though we love our children we often don’t understand the motivation for half of what they do.
Last week I conducted a training on class management and the temperament of children. One of the participants was a VIF (Visiting International Faculty) from South Africa. By most indicators, other than being a little rigid in conversation, she was your average middle aged middle class white lady. She informed me that American children (All Americans?) were suffering from the following maladies:
- Selfishness
- Irresponsibility
- Demanding
- Self centered
- Oblivious to the needs of others
Seeing this as an opportunity to problem solve, I began to list these manifestations of behavior on a flip chart. I nudged the participants along to come to the consideration that each of these characteristics were closely tied to the inability of many children to meet their underlying needs for Affection, Control and Inclusion in an acceptable and productive manner.
As this was a good point for a break I explained that the next segment would look at practical ways to help students meet their needs in productive and positive ways and we took 5 minutes to stretch and hydrate.
After the break I noticed the VIF teacher, who had raised the question didn’t return.
The class continued on quite well and many participants were able to find practical strategies and techniques to address the manifested behaviors. But, I wondered, what became of that over stressed teacher who was convinced that American children are evil.
Is it possible that the evil person you must deal with simply doesn’t understand the Godly ways in which they can get their needs met?