Right and Wrong

I've always enjoyed talking to children. As a parish priest I preferred the informality of school assembly to preaching in the church.

I remember one day the topic was shouting, and being shouted at. I told the kids how I hate being shouted at myself. Some of them weren't listening, so I raised my voice. Well, sometimes you just have to!

A week earlier I'd been to see Disney's "The Lion King" at the cinema. In it, the one thing above all which signifies the lion-cub's rise to seniority is the sound of his voice. From a rather tame-sounding, high-pitched growl, it grows to a deafening, and terrifying, roar. He achieves full power, full "King of the Jungle" status, by his ability to frighten others, and command attention, through the very loudness of his voice.

As those children knew only too well, grown-ups are nearly always bigger and stronger and cleverer than little ones. And they can shout louder too! Might isn't always right, as we say, but it certainly helps when making yourself heard. So I asked the children, 'Why?'

Why do people shout? Why do grown-ups shout? Why do teachers shout? And, because I saw the head teacher was present, why does your head teacher shout?

Some of the children - the older ones - said that often people shout to make themselves heard, because they are not being listened to. Others, about the same age, with a bit of encouragement from me, used their imaginations and offered such replies as, "Our teacher shouts at us because he's just had a row with his wife", or "because he's got out of bed the wrong side (or late)", or even "because he had to get out of bed at all", or "because he forgot to mark our homework."

In one way and another they were able to see that sometimes at least people raise their voices, express their anger and annoyance, for reasons of their own, because of things that are going on in their lives, for which you and I are not even remotely responsible; things indeed which have nothing to do with us at all.

But there were many children; I would guess most children; indeed I would say all of the youngest children; who spoke with one (loud) voice, and one answer between them. "Why does teacher shout at you?" "Teacher shouts because we're naughty. Teacher shouts because we have done something wrong."

It brought to my mind all those dire warnings of the trouble in store for us if we do not reverse recent liberal trends and give our children clear teaching on the difference between right and wrong. Evidently these children had learned the difference at a very early age. Not only did they know right from wrong, they also knew where they stood, which was mostly in the wrong. If teacher shouts, it must be my fault!