Right or Wrong?

We recently read Langston Hughes' short story, Thank You Ma'm, which emphasizes numerous literary elements and influential themes throughout the text. The story starts when a young African American boy attempts to steal a pocketbook from an elderly lady late at night. Instead of reporting him to the police, Mrs. Jones takes Roger to her house because she realizes he is roaming the streets for a reason. He tells her that he at home alone and hungry. She demands to know why he tried to steal her purse and he admits he wanted money to buy new blue suede shoes. Mrs. Jones told him that all he had to to do was ask instead of trying to steal.

After reading this short story, it sparked many interesting discussion among our class members regarding right and wrong. I posed the question if a child was caught stealing candy, how would one deal with teaching that child he/she was wrong? Should the child be punished? Would you tell the child you never did that when you were his/her age? There were varied responses to this question simply for the fact we were all taught differently. Of course the students shared their own stories of how their parents taught them right from wrong. Some learned the best from the old fashioned "whippings", having toys or games taken away, time-out, or the look of disappointment from parents was enough to work. The students even told me that my "sermons" provided meaningful lessons.

That afternoon I reflected back to my own way of learning values. I definitely became more appreciative of my parents for instilling strong morals within my life at a young age. I have always claimed my sister and I had the perfect childhood because of our parents' disciplinarian techniques. They led by example by doing what was right and our dinner conversations every night proved to be a lesson learned. We never missed an evening of eating together...no television, no phone calls, just the four of us. My parents always seemed to know what type of disciplinary action to take and there were times we deserved punishment. For example, when we left crayons in the brand new car during 100 degree weather. We had created a rainbow of colors after the sun had melted the entire box. Let's just say we knew to always take our crayons inside during the summer heat after that incident. We laugh telling those stories now...I can honestly say we were not punished often because the disappointment on mom and dad's faces was usually enough for us to correct our mistakes immediately.

Thanks to Langston Hughes' story it made us all question how we still know the difference between right from wrong. As an educator, how do I teach my students to make the right decisions that may affect them forever? As my friends are now becoming new parents, I wish them luck teaching their own children this important life skill. I admire ALL parents for taking on this tremendous responsibility. I am forever indebted to my own parents and even now as an adult, I make sure to not see that disappointed look on my daddy's face.