Thursday, February 25, 1999
Youngsters a tad fuzzy on their thou-shalts
BY KAREN SAMPLES
The Cincinnati Enquirer
If there were an 11th commandment, it might go something like this: When in doubt, ad-lib.
That's what some kids did this week when I asked them to name the Big 10. Among their suggestions: “Thou shalt not drive drunk,” “Thou shalt make money” and the nicely inclusive “Thou shalt obey all the rules of the world.”
Wednesday was a good time to get student opinions on the Ten Commandments. Their education, after all, is at the heart of recent controversy over the moral laws.
In Adams County, Ohio, a resident recently challenged the placement of commandment monuments outside four high schools.
Northern Kentucky also had a commandment crisis last week. The principal at A.J. Jolly Elementary removed the rules from the library after a teacher complained. Now parents are complaining about that.
First question for young people: How many commandments can they remember? Second question: What the heck does covet mean?
“Like, don't steal anything?” offered Ryan Sheehy, 9.
“Or break anything,” added his buddy Andrew Carroll, 10.
Good guess, guys.
Ryan and Andrew attend St. Henry School in Elsmere. I also talked with kids in Adams County and at Caywood Elementary in Edgewood.
Of five teen-agers I questioned in Adams County, only one could name more than four commandments. He was Eric Hall, 17, who remembered five of them.
Jon Dodds, 18, was stumped after the three easy ones: no adultery, killing or stealing.
Then he had an inspiration. “I remember — you should love your neighbor. There's one.”
Actually, that's not one. It's in the Bible, but not on the tablets God handed to Moses.
In Adams County, four grade-school girls were as well-versed in biblical lore as the older students. They didn't quite understand all the commandments, though.
Sarah Bennett, 10, started out with honoring your father and mother. Then she said something that sounded like, “Thou shalt not have false adoption.” Later, she clarified; she meant to say, “false doctrine,” although she isn't sure what that means.
At St. Henry school in Northern Kentucky, some students had an advantage. Fourth-graders are in the middle of studying the Ten Commandments. Gabrielle Boimann, 9, jumped on the chance to show her stuff.
“"You should have no other Gods before me,'” she recited, her face crinkling in concentration.
“I can't remember No. 2. No. 3 is, "Keep hold of the Sabbath.' Four is "Honor your father and mother.' And, oh, shoot, ooh ... I think 5 is you shouldn't steal.”
Ryan says he always gets stuck on 8 and 9 but knows No. 2. “I try not to say God's name or cuss at all,” he says.
Then he owns up to a little problem with the one about coveting neighbors' stuff. “Sometimes somebody has a Nintendo game that I really want and don't have, and I get really jealous,” he says.
Maria Barth, 8, wins the prize for most specific made-up commandment.
“If a president gets in any impeachment trial, he should be in jail for at least a month,” she says.
Maria goes to Caywood Elementary in Edgewood, a public school. She gets her commandment information from weekly classes at a Catholic church.
Maria remembered the one that says, “You shouldn't have any other Gods before the real God that you believe in.”
She and other kids are surprisingly savvy about murkiness in the Big 10.
Consider “Thou shalt not kill.”
Austin Gouge, 11, suggests a modification: “Thou shalt not kill unless you have to.” And Richard Koester, 10, says, “I think war should be separated from that. In a war, you're fighting for freedom or something.”
Nathan Pflueger, 10, attends a Baptist church in Cold Spring. He has no problem rattling off a bunch of commandments and even throwing in some history about the worship of golden calves.
As for their effect on his daily life ...
“When I get really mad at my sister and want to hit her, I mostly don't,” Nathan says. “I don't do it as hard as I think I might.”
My conclusion from this unscientific survey: Public school children would do best to learn the commandments from their families and churches. They would get more context that way — and context is important.
Karen Samples is The Enquirer's Kentucky columnist. Her column appears on Sundays and Thursdays in The Kentucky Enquirer. She can be reached at 578-5584, or by e-mail at ksamples@enquirer.com
Karen Samples is The Enquirer's Kentucky columnist. Her column appears on Sundays and Thursdays in The Kentucky Enquirer. She can be reached at 578-5584 or email
her at ksamples@enquirer.com
SAMPLES ARCHIVE
