Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
Children are human beings with inherent worth, distinct from adults who may have lost their innocence to oppressive systems.
In plain terms
Kids are people too, and their good nature hasn't been ruined by hard labor or control.
What can you take from it?
Treat children with the dignity owed to all people.

Where it applies

  • parenting
  • education
  • social justice

Putting it to work

  • advocate for children's rights
  • protect childhood innocence

Questions to consider

  • How do we protect children's innocence?
  • What defines a person?

Another view

The metaphor of slavery may be too strong for general contexts.

More from Gerry Spence

  1. Slavery is a state of mind that fails to acknowledge the slave's own power.

    Permalink to quote #13
  2. I say, embrace fear as a friend. It is nature's gift to us. It is the best weapon for liberty. ... It permits us to escape or to fight with power beyond our ab…

    Permalink to quote #15
  3. To accept capitalism and Free Enterprise as articles of faith without agreeing that we must be free to consider whether what is offered is free and freeing is …

    Permalink to quote #12

Related quotes

  1. Little girls, like butterflies, need no excuse.

    Robert A. HeinleinRobert A. Heinlein quote #101
  2. We've educated children to think that spontaneity is inappropriate. Children are willing to expose themselves to experiences. We aren't. Grownups always say th…

    Maurice SendakMaurice Sendak quote #8
  3. Society can and does execute its own mandates: and if it issues wrong mandates instead of right, or any mandates at all in things with which it ought not to me…

    John Stuart MillJohn Stuart Mill quote #8