THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, June 17, 1996 TAG: 9606170032
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MATTHEW BOWERS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 78 lines
Good and bad. Right and wrong.
Basic values.
Values, however, that Mary Hill Johnson - Norfolk native, longtime Washington-area educator and volunteer with the poor - repeatedly found lacking in the children she met.
``They would just say anything,'' Johnson said recently. ``They didn't seem to have a sense of morals.''
Morals and character are hot issues these days. Look at the presidential campaign, or at news reports of armed children roaming urban streets. People have complained for years that many young people aren't learning the moral values shared by most of society.
Johnson did more than complain - she jumped in to help. She wrote a book.
Called ``You Are Special: A Child's Guide for Successful Living,'' it's a 36-page self-help coloring, picture, puzzle and workbook aimed at youngsters in grades four through seven. To help modern kids, Johnson reached way back - all the way to the Bible's Old Testament and its Ten Commandments.
``I thought the Ten Commandments were the best way to start,'' Johnson said. ``Children need fences. . . . The Ten Commandments give them fences from the very beginning.''
Johnson, valedictorian of the 1951 senior class of Booker T. Washington High School and holder of a doctorate in mathematics, said she intended for the book to be read by children with their parents, guardians or an adult mentor, to foster further discussion about things many families don't talk about, such as the religious underpinnings of moral behavior.
The book starts by reminding children that they're special creations, with the right to feel good about themselves. It then leads them through discussions about why rules exist, how not following them often will make them or others feel bad, and why the Ten Commandments are seen as God's rules for people.
Johnson then discusses most of the commandments individually, leaving out the commandment against adultery because of the age of her target audience.
For instance, she describes the problems that lying can cause: it can bring harm, it can cost friends and lead to loneliness, and it doesn't serve any purpose, since liars usually are caught.
``Lies are like snowballs rolling down a hill,'' Johnson writes above a picture of a kid facing an avalanche of snowballs labeled ``lies.''
``When you tell one lie, you often have to tell another lie to cover the first one and another to cover the second. Each lie gets bigger and bigger.''
A worksheet page asks readers to write how they felt when they told a lie and when they told the truth.
Johnson argues against stealing by telling readers to trust that God will provide what's needed, so ``there is no need to take other people's things.'' She says respecting other's lives includes not hurting or killing them physically, but also not gossiping about or belittling them so they're hurt spiritually.
The second part of the book calls on child readers to learn to control themselves so they'll have happy lives: obey God and parents, forgive others, eat right, study hard and be nice to people.
``God's way will not bring trouble to you,'' Johnson writes.
Basic Sunday School stuff, she says, but Johnson sees the basics missing in many children. She blames too-young parents who don't know or follow the traditional rules themselves, working parents too tired at night to discuss moral principles, schools that shy away from spiritual subjects. Children too often receive their moral grounding on the immoral streets, she said.
``What I'm trying to do is develop the child while at the same time develop a feeling of trust with someone they feel they can talk to, so they don't have this feeling of aloneness,'' Johnson said.
Johnson and her book, in its second edition this year, have been featured in Washington-area newspapers, television and radio and the national magazine Jet. She and her husband, Eugene Williams Sr., run a nonprofit volunteer organization and a math-tutoring center outside Washington. She also directs a math, science and technology academy at a Washington high school.
``Many years ago, I don't think you need this book,'' Johnson said. ``Today, I think you need it very badly. . . . I don't think a book is everything a child needs, but it's a good beginning.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Mary Hill Johnson, who attended Booker T. Washington High School,
used the Ten Commandments as a basis for her self-help book for
kids. by CNB