The name is absent

22         Living in Revolution

Likewise, child training is achieved neither by imposing
a pattern nor by avoiding the strain of differing. Freedom
in religion for children has too often meant freedom to
know nothing about it. But we do not avoid prejudice by
exposing children to nothing, for they will be exposed to
plenty that is false and shallow and second-rate in spite of
us. Their minds will be open to a jumble of impressions and
half-baked opinions which leave them utterly confused as
they face the radical philosophies which today are seeking
to overthrow a free civilization.

If children are going to differ from our view of life, as
they should, then it is for us to expose them to the best in
our religious tradition which represents the experience of
thirty centuries. Let them wrestle with its enduring truths
which belong to the ages. The only cure for a bad impression
is a better impression gained when they are most impres-
sionable.

Watching parents in the little things they do, while they
are working, playing, making friends, going to church,
reading books, acquiring good taste, talking at the table
and behind people’s backs—this is the great school where
a new generation learns whom to believe. There is little
that is academic or spectacular about it, but, first and last,
it is a free world’s best hope.

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