The Underestimated Compassion and Understanding of Children

A smart, sweet three-year-old and her dad made my morning today and inspired this post. Before or after you read this one, you must do yourself the favor of reading Ryan's post from last night over at The Veg Blog. Because his three-year-old daughter? She's going to do beautiful, compassionate things in this world. Hell, she's already doing them. I won't give away Ryan's whole post. I'll just say that his little one is a lovely example of what we're capable of as people, what this world's children are capable of in particular, when we can get past everything that's been ingrained in us -- or so much better, when it's never ingrained in us in the first place.

Back in May, when I wrote about Ruby Roth's gorgeous new children's book That's Why We Don't Eat Animals, I included the following paragraph:

Toddlers and young children are so open to the world and its inhabitants, so full of affection and wonder, and so free of judgment except for what judgments the adults in their lives teach them. Children aren't born racist or homophobic or even dismissive of animals. They have the capacity for great love for all around them, from other children to all kinds of animals to a grove of tall trees. . . . [But] so terribly often, we actually lie to kids, and we teach them to abandon compassion as childish, to embrace prejudices and judgment, and to conform themselves to what adults believe--and who adults think children should be--without giving them the opportunity to make their own choices, even when they want to.

Children such as Ryan's daughter are proof of those first few lines and proof that even without kids' books or videos (though they can certainly be helpful), for example, kids can get it -- because it is really the simplest concept to grasp: "We don't need to eat animals, sweetie, so we don't. We love animals, so we don't kill them." People who've been raised on eating animals and animal products and seeing many animals as entertainment or tools (i.e., most of us) initially tend to look at animal rights and veganism as something out there, something complicated, when in reality, as I've said before, it's the simplest, most basic, and most consistent of concepts: it's a belief in nonviolence lived, a commitment to compassion expressed.

Kids like Ryan's daughter don't get confusing messages from their parents. They aren't lied to. There's never a "who" on their plate disguised as a what. They're never taught false distinctions between pigs and dogs, cats and chickens, cows and dolphins. They're never encouraged to falsely see farmed animals (or circus-enslaved animals or lab-confined animals or any other animals) as mindless, unfeeling things, and they're never presented the myth of happy farms where animals magically, willingly, painlessly become food. They don't get the whole childhood and more of subtle and not-subtle messages about animals that so many of us do get and have to break through and unlearn.

And they aren't "indoctrinated" with animal rights philosophy, as detractors may be inclined to absurdly argue (as if the vast majority of kids aren't indoctrinated with the view of animals as things, as objects for our use). They're just not lied to. As Ryan pointed out, it's not like you have to "break out Earthlings at your kid’s fourth birthday party" to be honest with a child about animals and why his or her family doesn't eat them or what comes from them. The most basic explanation -- that explanation of caring about animals and not wanting to hurt them -- is perfectly kid-friendly and sufficient. Indeed, that simplest logic and explanation, which Ryan's daughter understands so well, should be sufficient for all of us. If we believe in nonviolence and compassion -- if we believe in not causing harm and suffering and death when we don't have to -- then we shouldn't cause that harm. The idea of veganism is wonderfully uncomplicated. It's merely a matter of choosing compassion over violence. It is so simple that a three-year-old grasps it beautifully. Here's to you this morning, Rasine. The world is, and will continue to be, a lovelier place with you in it.

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Photo (not of Ryan's daughter), taken at Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary, by Flickr user katstan