Jessica Lucchini

English block 3

February, 10, 1998

Innocence essay

Children and innocence, one in the same in most opinions. Two young friends playing in the back yard on the swing set, running after butterflies in the meadow, playing dress up, watching Sleeping Beauty or Cinderella in the living room curled up in a blanket. These are some of the pictures that may come to mind when you think of young, innocent children. But are they really as innocent as every one makes them out be? I personally don’t think so.

Remember when you were in kindergarten or elementary school and were playing out on the playground, how many fights over stupid things like who was going to sit next to Sally at lunch, or who could draw the best X-Men character? Or how many of the boys would pick on the teachers in charge of watching over them while they were in or outside. You know all of the stupid tricks - chalk in the eraser, tack on the chair or any other trick that would get a laugh out of all of the kids in class. I had this one teacher, Mrs. Boyt, who tried to be really nice and sweet, but nobody liked her and so some one was always picking on her. We even made her cry a few times. We would act up so much that she would become overwhelmed with it all and break down. It was really a really cruel thing to do but most of the kids in my class thought it was great. After class they would go out and tell all of their friends that they made Mrs. Boyt cry again and they would all get a kick out of it and run laughing outside to the playground or to the bus. I can still remember how sad she looked, like she failed or something; but back then it was an achievement to make her cry while you had her for a teacher.

It isn’t just at school where children are mean and nasty; it also happens at home. I remember bugging the baby-sitters we had nonstop. One of them, Stephanie Vowels, was stuck with us for a week a few times. I will never know how on earth she ever made it through the week without going totally crazy.

I can also remember my next-door neighbor Kerri and Christopher Greenwood picking on me nonstop when I was about four or so. I would go over to play while our mothers would talk. We would always without fail get into a “who can touch their feet to the bar on the other side of the swing-set first” contest. I would get on the swing on the left side and Kerri, a year older than I was, would get on the right hand swing. Chris, who was much older would start counting to three, and Kerri would start swinging on two. Then if I did win they would say that I didn’t, or if I said that it wasn’t fair because they cheated they would say that they didn’t. Then Kerri and Chris would run to all of the escape routes and block them off so that I could not tell on them or get home. They would just laugh at me as I ran around the yard trying to get out. Eventually they moved to New Hampshire and Whitney Frasier moved in. We would also fight on and off but we also had fun when we on a talking basis.

Children can be very nasty and most people only remember the good points of childhood. But, it is clearly shown in The Lord of Flies that children have a mean streak in them, and they can get very hostile. It is also evident in the movie The Good Son. Look at children not as perfect little angels, babies yes, but not children. There are some good kids, but they are not always on their best behavior, or always what they seem to be. Some kid who is thought to be an angel by family might be the class bully. Parents want to have this perfect image of their children, and sometimes they look over the obvious to see what they want to see. People do not want to believe that children are not innocents. They want to see them as care free spirits. To believe anything else is to go against all that we were taught about how childhood is a wonderful and worry free time and possibly the best time in our lives.