Children and truth

 

Right from birth, as part of being accustomed to the society we have created, our children get exposed to lies. They soon get tightly and permanently surrounded by a society where parents lie to put children to sleep and teachers lie to make them follow orders. As they grow up they face bigger lies. Artists tell lies to show the truth, journalists tell lies to keep his boot, politicians lie to get power, religious leaders lie to develop blind follower base, industrialists lie to inflate their value and ego. In the age of misinformation overload it is seemingly impossible for a child to learn to distinguish lies from the truth.

It is brutal on a child who is growing up in this society to live a dignified living while staying honest. We all are partly responsible for creating this world. Hence it is our responsibility to equip the child with skills which will help him/her maneuver through this world full of lies in every step effectively. How to distinguish lies from truth, how to distinguish benign lies from harmful ones, how to interpret lies. Above all, how not to give in to the temptation of easy but dishonest life in favor of a dignified life of seeking truth without compromising on quality of life.

Right from childhood when a child is capable of learning, he/she should be trained in critical thinking. Or as some of us love to call, scientific thinking. Early age children naturally ask a lot of questions, but rarely get honest answers. Tired, unwilling, or uneducated grown ups fill these little minds with answers that are designed to shut them down quickly or take them to the world of fantasies and fairytales instead of making them face the truth which in many cases will generate far more questions.

The children need to face the truth raw. A child's mind can take far more than what we think they can in terms of truth. They can comprehend that we are an insignificant part of an infinitely large and complex space and time. In very early age they can comprehend that we humans and plants and all other animals are made of the same building blocks called cells. With the right education they can also comprehend that every matter, living or nonliving, is made of the same building block - atoms and molecules. That we die. When we die, we become part of the nature surrounding us. Some atoms become part of a caterpillar, while some atoms form a leaf of a tree. Some become part of a rock. And that's ok. Because long ago these atoms were burning inside some star in some solar system in some part of the universe.

They need to know that the truth is not always pretty. That truth behind most activities in the universe is not known to its final form, and it's ok to be ignorant. But it is not ok to stay ignorant, or even worse fill ignorance with made up truth. They need to know that there is no god, no demon, no heaven, no hell. There is no magic. There is no miracle. Justice is a man made construct, the universe is agnostic to it.

Then they need to ‘learn’ that in spite of this they need to do ‘good’. They need to be kind, they need to be just. They need to hunt for the truth even when, and particularly when, it is most difficult to do so. Not in fear of someone, not to please someone. But to be a good citizen of this universe that we share with numerous other humans and other species.

Telling a kid that humans were created by god is easy. Telling a kid that humans were created from single cell organisms living under water 3.7 billion years ago is difficult. But as parents, if we take on this challenge, we will develop citizens of tomorrow who will take us to other planets and cure diseases, revolutionize new art forms, and build responsible organizations.