Class Discussion: Good and Bad People

This is going to be a short post, as the discussion lasted about 5 minutes.

At Chinese School, we were writing sentences, and one of the sentences someone wrote was along the lines of 'I always knew there were some bad people in the world.' We were supposed to use chong lai yie bu, which is a double negative, just in case the sentence sounds weird.

My teacher used this opportunity to further extend the conversation. She asked each of us if we thought there were good, bad, or both (good and bad) people in the world.

I really don't know what she was expecting, as we all answered 'both'.

Then, she asked whether we had always known there were bad people in the world. Most people answered that when they were really young, they always thought there were good people, but as they grew up they learned that not everyone is good and pure.

Yeah, we're a pretty...naive class.

Anyhoo, one of the kids piped up, let's call him Squeegee Beckenheim, "Well, I always knew there were bad people in the world. Like, when I was 2 I knew there were bad people."

I have to agree with the other kids in that when you're young, you don't really know that there are bad people, and as you grow up (yada yada yada). But I had to think, what kind of childhood experience led Squeegee to believe that there were bad people in the world at two? What, did some kid Bobby steal your crayons, and from then on you exclaimed, "Ever since Bobby took my crayons I knew there were bad people!!"

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Yeah, I found that sudden thought (or Tiffany-ism, if you will) funny and somewhat epiphany-ish.

My opinion is that everyone starts out good, it's their environment, upbringing, and decisions that decide whether they are 'good' or 'bad'. Squeegee pointed out that in war there are good people and bad people, but I countered that war was based on opinions and disagreements.

.....and that's all she had to say. :)