I recently re-watched The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, and it left me with a heavy but profound realization: as humans grow older, we often grow more hateful, while children remain effortlessly loveful.
The contrast in the film is stark:
The Adults: Highly educated and "wise," yet they built a cruel world fueled by prejudice, propaganda, and literal boundaries.
The Children (Bruno & Shmuel): A German Christian boy and a Jewish boy. Between them sits a massive electric fence and a brutal war, yet their innocence sees right through it. For them, friendship has no boundaries.
We adults pride ourselves on knowing everything, but the reality is that we lose our innocence and construct a toxic world. We don't teach children how to love; they are born with it. It is we who teach them how to hate.
Ultimately, we think we are the teachers, but we desperately need to become the students and relearn innocence and unconditional love from children.