Valuing Childhood The value of childhood is easily blurred (变得模糊不清) in today's world. Consider some recent developments: The child-murderers in the Jonesboro, Ark. schoolyard shooting case were convicted and sentenced. Two boys, 7 and 8, were charged in the murder of an 11-year-old girl in Chicago. Children who commit horrible crimes appear to act of their own will. Yet, as legal proceedings in Jonesboro showed, the one boy who was able to address the court couldn't begin to explain his acts, though he tried to apologize. There may have been a motive m youthful jealousy (妒忌) and resentment. But a deeper question remains: Why did these boys and others in similar trouble apparently lack any inner, moral restraint? That question echoes for the accused in Chicago, young as they are. They wanted the girl's bicycle, a selfish impulse common enough among kids. Redemption (拯救) is a practical necessity. How can value be restored to young lives distorted by acts of violence? The boys in Jonesboro and in Chicago will be confined in institutions for a relatively short time. Despite horror at what was done, children are not—cannot be m dealt with as adults, not if a people wants to consider itself civilized. That's why politicians' cries for adult treatment of youthful criminals ultimately miss the point. But the moral void (真空) that invites violence has many sources. Family instability contributes. So does economic stress. That void, however, can be filled. The work starts with parents, who have to ask themselves whether they're doing enough to give their children a firm sense of right and wrong. Are they really monitoring their activities and their developing processes of thought? Schools, too, have a role in building character. So do youth organizations. So do law enforcement agencies, which can do more to inform. the young about laws, their meaning, and their observance (遵守). The goal, ultimately, is to allow all children a normal passage from childhood to adulthood (成年), so that tragic gaps in moral judgement are less likely to occur. The relative few who fill such gaps with acts of violence hint at many others who don't go that far, but who lack the moral foundations childhood should provide—and which progressive human society relies on. The two boys in Chicago were