a social curriculum at six years old

resisting meanness of spirit

“Ewwh! what is that thing?” as she looks at the hardboiled egg,
“I can’t look at that,” says another,

“Would you like it if I said ‘Ewwh that stuff in your lunch is disgusting?'
How would you feel?”

They say they wouldn’t like it,
Still a boy keeps holding his nose and saying “That’s disgusting!”

“If you keep saying that, I’m going to tell the teacher.”

And so he stopped.



Our six year-old granddaughter finishes her lunch
and that night asks for another egg with the next day’s lunch.
The next day she sits with other, better friends,
enjoys the egg, and the company. . .

How wonderful for her, and for the bullying peers
that meanness of spirit finds no reward.


Would that all young people would stand up for self
and that all who would give into lesser instincts
would learn how to deny the voice
that makes them smaller while giving the illusion of the larger.

by Henry H. Walker
October 1, ’11