My first-grade =
grandchild corrected me as I was reading her my favorite =
children’s book, “Mr. Bear Squash-You-All-Flat”. (It =
is also the favorite of cartoonist Gary Larson who is my age and raised =
on that story). The 1948 classic calls this grumpy neighborhood nuisance =
a “stupid” old bear. I just read the text (with sound =
effects, of course) and never thought of this as a “bad” =
word.
“Grandpa, we were taught the first week of school NOT =
to use the “S” word.”
Now, I do NOT cuss in =
front of the kids or use vulgar or hurtful words. The =
“F” bomb won’t cross my lips, nor other pejoratives I =
grew up with. But I had not heard about any “S” =
word.
“What is that?” I innocently =
asked.
“My teacher said we can’t call anyone or =
anything stupid.”
I immediately =
changed it to “silly” old bear. Noticed a year later =
as I bought 3 new reprints – one for each of my grown children to =
store for reading to another generation – that the publisher ALSO =
changed “stupid” to =
“silly”.
I thought this =
would settle the child down, but the next day she came by our home =
saying, “On the playground today I got called the ‘G’ =
word,” she sobbed.
“OK. =
Let’s calm down,” I said, kneeling beside her with no clue =
what the “G” word was. “Now, exactly what were you =
called?”
Between sobs =
she blurted, “He called me a G g g g – =
jerk!”
~~
Dr Bob Griffin =
[email protected] =
www.grif.net =
"Jesus =
Knows Me, This I =
Love!"