Not really sure why this jumped out at me today....but it did, and it's got me thinking. I was in my philosophy class, and one of my classmates has a child whom she brings to class once in a while when she has no other options. Anyway, our philosophy teacher was on a role, and she almost said the "B" word when she suddenly stopped herself and alluded to the fact that there was a young person in the room and instead replaced her "B" word with "Bad person."

I guess the thing about it was....my prof is not a Christian, and we were just discussing Nietzsche (a philosopher) and how we need to choose our own values and be our own individuals apart from what society tells us to be. So....my question is.....if my prof thinks it's ok to cuss (because she does it when there aren't children in the room), why did she stop herself around the child? I never really thought about this before, but it seems that everyone does this. People who drink and cuss often times will limit these habits in front of children. Why? So the children won't get the idea that it's ok? But it must be ok if we are doing it ourselves......? If we want to limit these actions around children, doesn’t that say something about our moral consciousness?

It just got me thinking.....why this sudden change of beliefs in my prof when she suddenly remembered there was a child in the room? Maybe children have the ability to make us see our flaws....I think they cause us to have some sort of sense of guilt about our sinfulness....maybe because they are still innocent and we see something in them (maybe the spirit of God?) that we desire....innocence and freedom. Or maybe I'm totally off and this is all just based on a social norm. But, I thought it was rather interesting.