University of Virginia Library

Disillusionment

On Monday (4/20) I opened my
class-room activities in the first
grade at Belfield School with a talk
about "environment" and "pollution,"
and what we can do as
individuals to improve the situation.

I explained to the children that
this was V.I.E.W. week at the
University and that th e students
are spending this week trying to
clean up and improve our surroundings.
When it was the children's
turn to talk, I was amazed to
discover a deep concern because
some of them had gone to Sunday
School the day before, forging their
way through what they called the
"pollution of Rugby Road." They
were troubled by what they saw
and asked me why the University
students would create such a mess.

In the fourteen years that I have
been teaching the first grade, this is
one of the most difficult questions
that I have been asked by the
children. These youngsters are six
and seven years old, and to them a
U.Va. student is more or less of a
hero. To find that these students
are doing so conspicuously what
their parents, teachers, and Sunday
Schools are teaching against, is a
rather shattering experience.

Please, young gentlemen (and
ladies) will you help me? What shall
I tell my children?