Spoken
by Supreme Master Ching Hai,
the Hsihu Center, Formosa, November 3, 1995 (Originally in English)
Let's
hope for and teach our children by setting a good example. Let them
be courageous and outspoken and honest. That is your duty; you have
to set a good example for them.
Children
learn very fast, and they learn a lot of bad things in school. Because
there are teachers who don't always teach the right thing ethically,
and there are classmates who don't always set a good example for our
children to follow. Some of our children here I sent to school. But
before they went to school, they were much sweeter, better, calmer and
more obedient. After they went to school for some years, they became
different. They didn't listen to their parents like they did before.
Sometimes they even fought back with words, or sometimes with gestures,
very violently. This is very shocking to know.
But
I cannot stop them from going to school. If I do, then people will say
that I don't let the children go to school, and we'll all be in more
trouble. But if I let them go to school, we are only one person, and
they are in the school all day long. And when they come home, they're
busy doing homework, and then they go to sleep. So the time spent with
their parents is less than the time spent with their classmates. That
is the problem with the kids today. And when one kid learns something
wrong, all the other kids follow. It's very difficult for them not to
follow, unless they truly have courage and intelligence. Because if
they don't follow all the other kids, the bullies in the school will
bully them into following. Or sometimes they shame them into following
the wrong thing. Because they say, "You are not boy enough. Look
at you, 'Goodie.' You don't know anything! You don't know about girls,
you don't know about drugs, and you don't know about cigarettes. You
know nothing! And we know everything. Come on, you don't have any courage.
You are a..." They will call the kid 'a rabbit,' or 'a chicken,'
and things like that. And so the small boy's pride gets hurt, and then
sooner or later he joins in.
So
originally our children are not bad, but when we send them to school
they become terrible; they become gangsters. And they can get away with
anything, because they are minors. They can't be put in jail, and they
can't be electrocuted, so they can't be punished too harshly. Some of
the children know this. If you read the newspaper, you know. They even
announce it. They say, "We can do anything, because we are minors.
We know we won't go to jail for very long. We know that no one can punish
us too harshly. We can get away with anything. Even with murder!"
Nowadays, children with guns or knives go to school and threaten the
teacher. And even then not many people do anything about it. They get
together and become strong, but they are minors. There are always excuses
like this.
So
this is a terrible world we are giving our children today. It has a
lot of freedom. Children today have a lot of money and time, and a lot
of equipment to help them learn. So they learn quickly, and then they
have a lot of free time and freedom. And if you touch them, people say,
"Oh, child abuse!" And you'll be in more trouble. Actually,
some parents are scared of their children, because the children come
home and beat them, and bully the parents into giving them money and
all kinds of things. So there is even an "Abused Parents Anonymous,"
or something like that. In many countries they have this.
Next
Cultivating Ethical Concepts from Childhood