Teaching injustice

My daughter first learned how unfair life can be at around the same time she began to put full sentences together. Her misdemeanors would come up to the Court of Dad. There, I would deliberate and deliver verdict that were not appealable in matters of mealtime, bedtime and other essential behaviorial edict. Life has gotten more complicated since. Her counter-arguments and defense have become well-formed and sophisticated. But on the whole, judgments are decided based on her best interest which is rarely met with opposition. We are pretty lucky in that we do not have a hard life and my daughter has never known true injustice.

Nevertheless, I maintain the edict that there is no growth without struggle (even vicarious ones). Far be it for me to manufacture a hardship and risk involving Children’s Aid, so we explore injustice through reading our history—something that would be support by her school’s curriculum anyway. One of the best children’s series I have come across is the “I am” books by Brad Metltzer. Each is entitled after historical figures like, Amelia Earhart, Martin Luther King, Jr., Abraham Lincoln, Rosa Parks, Sonia Sotomayor, Harriet Tubman, Sacagawea, Jackie Robinson, et cetra. Each person has suffered various forms of hardship, intolerance, isolation, injustice and discrimination in our history and I felt it was important for any child to first know our history; second, to know the struggle; and finally, to know how much progress has been made since. And sometimes, that may not be enough. Eternal vigilance is necessary.

It doesn’t take many to spoil the barrel. In fact, more often than not, human tragedies are committed in the light of day in full view of a silent populace. What’s astonishing isn’t that atrocities happened at all in human societies, but that atrocities are allowed to happen because the vast majority of us standby and do little. What is truly appalling is that our impartiality is used as silent endorsement by the minority of perpetrators to commit untold horrors upon the masses. Our inability to act isn’t a human failing, but a human choice.

Teaching injustice to children is a very difficult thing to do. It cannot be replicated in a lab nor can it be personified in a first-person experience. While we read about peaceful protests and persevering attitudes by historical figures, the fact of the matter is that change and normalization takes years, decades or even centuries…well beyond the patience of an 8 year-old. And even if the world has been changed, sometimes, what is changed is still not universal nor is it pervasive. The frustrating thing is that it still happens every day in every town. My daughter sees it in her school.  Children would bring insufficient food for lunches and would rely on the school’s snack program. Classmates wearing inadequate clothing want to play with friends but are held back by the biting winter winds during outdoor play. Telltale signs are children who repeatedly come to school still tired from sleepless or stressful nights. Unfortunately, we do not live in a society where the basic living standards are guaranteed and one illness can literally deplete a generation’s savings and bring the family to destitute. So, it is all the more important not to raise our children in snug bubbles of comfort while being ignorant, or worst, ignoring the plight of our neighbors. The disadvantaged do not want sympathies. They may not want compassion. What they need isn’t even an equal opportunity, but an equitable chance. But fortunately, the themes of injustice seemed to have remained unchanged for generations and are still readily identifiable along familiar separateness of race, gender and economics.

It doesn’t take many to spoil the barrel. In fact, more often than not, human tragedies are committed in the light of day in full view of a silent populace. What’s astonishing isn’t that atrocities happened at all in human societies, but that atrocities are allowed to happen because the vast majority of us standby and do little. What is truly appalling is that our impartiality is used as silent endorsement by the minority of perpetrators to commit untold horrors upon the masses. Our inability to act isn’t a human failing, but a human choice. Even experiments conducted by Frans de Waal, a primatologist and Emory University professor, showed that monkeys react negatively when basic reward for work is paid unequally. What does that say about us human primates?

I believe that the best weapon against injustice is our humanity itself. Firstly, teach your children self-respect especially when others do not show them this. Nobody will love your children more than you in this world. Teach them that their own worth is equal to that love. Their value is not measured in the words or actions of others, but of their own. If they have the self-respect to believe they deserve better, they will conjure the confidence to do better and to demand better from others. Second, teach your children compassion for this will allow them to show empathy to others and truly walk in another’s shoes. Others need to be appreciated in the same way they would seek appreciation and recognition. If they realize that something is unjust to them, they will know instantly that it would be a conflict to allow the unjust to be done onto another. Finally, teach your children gratitude for the things they have and their ability to replenish the things they need. These simple things are all within a child’s grasp for a better world.