I hear colleagues tell me that it is child abuse to impose the education of forgiveness on unsuspecting students. How would you answer such a charge?

Good philosophy is the pursuit of wisdom.  Good education is the same.  Part of being wise is to know how to control one’s anger, to reduce resentment, and to forge healthy relationships in the home and in the community.  Forgiveness, seen in scientific studies, is one effective way of reducing resentment and fostering better behavior and relationships.  If we then deprive a child of this part of wisdom, are we somehow aiding that child’s development or stifling it?  Teaching about forgiveness is far from child abuse.  Deliberately withholding knowledge of forgiveness is educational deprivation, which should happen to no child.

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