"Hey dad, who is a good person and how do you become one? " I asked my dad while he was taking off his jacket. He looked at me with a smile on his face and said " the ones who vote for the republicans " I was eight years old. That was my assignment question from my literature teacher. I wrote it down and I went back to school next day. The teacher told me to read my response and I read what I wrote. Laughers spread out across the room. The teacher went and told all the teachers about what I said. I was embarrassed. From that point on, I decided that I would never ask my dad about anything. More than that, I did not want to ask him about the second part of the assignment, which was how to become a good person. In the same way, Coles, in his essay " I Listen to my Parents and I Wonder What They Believe ", introduces the idea that the children are more aware of moral issues and because of that are in need of guidance and encouragement to understand what is right and wrong. Parents neglect the children's desire and curiosity to know about moral principles.
To begin, parents fail to realize that their children are more aware of what is going on around them. Coles states in his essay that "we do not see that our children also make ethical decisions every day in their own lives, or realize how attuned they may be to moral currents and issues in the larger society " (Coles,2003, p. 438). Parents should come to the reality of understanding that their children are not nave to society and everything that it presents. He further states "In home after home that I have visited, and in many classrooms, I have met children who not only are growing emotionally and intellectually, but also are trying to make sense of the world morally " (Coles,2003, p. 439) and that "Listening, one begins to realize that an elementary-school child is no stranger to moral reflection " and to ethical conflict. " (Coles,2003, p.