As we drive to school, Minal, who will be 11 in just a few weeks, says to me: “Children are more honest and peaceful than grown-ups.”
“What do you mean?” I ask.
“Children are honest. If they do something wrong, they own up to what they did, and they apologize.”
She shares a story from pre-school when she accidentally pushed another child into the mud. “His clothes got messed up, and the teacher was telling him that his mother would be upset. And then I said, ‘Actually, it was my fault.’ I apologized. The teacher scolded me a little, but she also said: ‘Thank you for being honest.’”
After finishing the story, Minal says: “That’s what children do. We own up and apologize, but grownups: they get mad and start wars.”