Kids aren’t stupid

Re: “Kids’ books offer hope against tyranny”, (Opinion, Oct 2).

Having read Wasant Techawongtham’s thought-provoking article about children’s books loaded with political messages, I could not help but think that history should make us ask if the ideologies presented are really “just words”, as in justified, or “just words”, as in only irrelevant?

Of course, there were always banned authors who wrote kids’ books with other ideas, but it was centuries before the social mores changed on these issues, and I argue that society changed only because world events and realworld problems caused young citizens to embrace alternate ideas — not the ideas or books themselves.

Taken together, I think history shows that we can try to programme our youth with any particular ideals but, no matter what we adults might say, the kids will grow to think for themselves and eventually will decide for themselves whether the values in kids’ books that controlling older adults hand to them constitute morally “just words”, or merely “just words”.

JASON A JELLISON