Johnny is a fourth grade student who is involved in a school project to create a drama that depicts the plotting of a murder in such a manner that the murderer gets away with his actions. Johnny is told that his grade is based upon his ability to critically think of all the possible evidence trails he could leave and to be able to cover his tracks to leave no evidence. To make this task easier for Johnny, the teacher allows him to use characters that remind him of people who he does not like very much. The teacher’s rationale for this is the portrayal of bad people in Johnny’s life will help him to be creative and to accept of the theme of the project. This will help Johnny to proceed in this project with more attention to detail.
There are times teachers and other helping professionals attempt to get our children to empathize with notorious people with the good intentions of helping children to understand the human condition and how we all possess a good and bad nature to our being. What they fail to do is to set these projects up from a moral and virtuous manner. What I mean is that the students are not taught about absolute rights and wrongs initially to be able to make the distinction that a project is to help them use critical thinking. Without doing the work initially to teach morality and values, these students are susceptible to taking the message that a murder can be justified and successfully done without getting caught.
These types of exercises can de-sensitize children to horrific acts and indirectly romanticize them, especially for those children living in homes where they are not provided a solid moral code. There are more and more children growing up in households where either both parents work or where there is a single parent who works. Some children do not have a parent to process events of their day that challenge their values and morals. The television and friends become the means of some of these children to develop a sense of how to conduct themselves in this world. Children are left vulnerable to the moral relativism created by a media and possibly friends where violence, drugs, and sex are the prevailing themes. How do we account for young children and adolescents who kill themselves or others?
Our children want to know what constitutes right and wrong in their world. They want to see that wrongs are recognized and dealt with appropriately. Children I have worked with as a therapist have shown the most success in environments where the rights and wrongs have been outlined and enforced on a consistent basis. Kids do want structure and order in their life. The more that expectations are spelled out and recognized by parents, teachers, and other adults in their lives, the more relaxed and productive the children will be.
