A New, Non-Religious, Ten Commandments for Kids
Louisiana just enacted legislation requiring the Ten Commandments to be posted in every classroom. The bill was red meat for the base and will be challenged in court. While I don’t think posting the Ten Commandments as we know them is necessary, I do think giving kids clear, useful advice can only help. So here’s what a non-religious Ten Commandments, written for the day and age we live in, could look like:
You only feel happy when you feel good about yourself. You never truly feel good about yourself when you make others feel bad. So be nice. It’s better for you.
You get to define life by your own terms, but anything you’d probably consider worthwhile requires a lot of hard work.
Social media is fake. No one is perfect. The people pretending to be perfect tend to be the unhappiest. Everyone’s lives go up and down. That’s how it works.
You don’t need a lot of friends. You just need a few you can count on and who can count on you.
You are what you eat. Loading your body up with sugar, drugs, nicotine, alcohol, THC, caffeine, etc… ultimately makes you feel worse physically and emotionally, not better.
School and childhood is a small part of your overall life. Even if it sucks now, it will get better (you don’t want to peak in high school).
Most things you worry about turn out not to be a big deal.
Everybody is making it up as they go along.
Ask questions. Be curious. It’s more interesting that way.
Let people be who they are. It’s fine if they’re different from you and it’s good that you’re different from everyone else. Life would be boring otherwise.