Play nice, or don’t play at all

October 9th, 2007

Once upon a time there were two little boys. One of the boys, Little Johnny, liked to wear blue and talk about how people are different and should look after themselves. Little Johnny didn’t really get along with Little Dalton, who liked to wear red, and talk about how people should be equal and how things have to change. It seemed the two boys were always fighting.

They would often sit down together in the sandbox and argue. But not too often. There were plenty of days when they wouldn’t be seen at all, and a playground supervisor could swear they spent their time accomplishing nothing.

The sandbox was usually filled with other children too, those who liked to wear orange, and green, and all sorts of fancy colours; but they never seemed to be as popular as the two wearing all the red and blue, for some reason. Every once in a while, just to keep things exciting for everyone, the children in the sandbox would get together to try and determine who was the fairest of them all. The children didn’t have a magical mirror to look into, so they all washed their faces, smiled, and tried to talk it out.

Apparently, sensible talk doesn’t get you very far in a sandbox and, before long, the children were screaming and yelling and throwing dirt at each other. They probably would have started hair pulling too, but too many of the other children were watching them at this point.

So, they decided to employ more subtle tactics. Little Dalton began by talking about his popularity, about all the good things he has done, and how the world is a better place with him in it. This upset Little Johnny, and he quickly told everyone that Little Dalton doesn’t keep his promises, that he lies, and can not be trusted.

No one can keep all their promises, said Little Dalton, but with hard work and more time, things will get better. He said if Little Johnny was in charge of the sandbox, he would split it up, and half would have to pay to play there.

This upset the other children. The one in green stopped cleaning all the sand, the one in orange stopped dividing it equally into little piles, and the rest ran around without any real direction. Before long they were all shouting, saying terrible things, and hoping someone would start crying.

Whether or not they all lived happily ever after remains to be seen, but it doesn’t look too likely at this point. The problem with the sandbox is not the quality of the children playing in it, but the quality of their behaviour. Instead of shifting attention to how dirty one end of the sandbox is, the children should be spending their energy looking after the whole thing. If Little Dalton and Little Johnny spent as much energy on positive change as they did complaining, the sandbox would be a far better place. My teachers taught me that pointing out someone else’s faults does not erase your own shortcomings.

It is disappointing that any child, whatever colour they happen to be wearing, sinks so low as to only point out the negatives. Instead of allowing such behaviour, and rewarding it, we should start looking into the sandbox, right into those dirty little faces, and tell them all to clean up their act.