An 11-year-old girl shamed us adults as media reported yesterday that she
presented small red lanterns in appreciation to those on a bus who gave
up their seats to the elderly and to mothers carrying babies.
The primary school pupil in Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province, said she
decided to do this because when she took the bus to school every day, she
saw young people refusing to give up their seats.
My immediate reaction when I read the story was that we should try our
best to prevent our children from losing this precious, untainted human
goodness.
But on second thought, I found my idea ludicrous. How can children
preserve this natural goodness under the current social circumstances
where adults contend with each other for the largest possible personal
gains, where mass media and the entertainment industry boost the values
of self-promotion, and where unethical individuals have contempt for
anyone trying to denounce them. It is adult society, not the kids, that
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