“Teach Your Children”

“Teach Your Children” surfaces in Andy McGee’s private reflection as he waits to face the people responsible for his predicament. Its decisive force comes from the way he turns a phrase about teaching the young into a charge against adults and institutions that claim authority while concealing the truth.

Use in Andy’s Reflection

Andy imagines what he would tell his captors if he could get clear. He has concluded that needing two hundred dollars, taking part in a controlled experiment, and wanting freedom were not moral failings for which he or Charlie McGee should have to atone. Against that reasoning, the phrase “teach your children, teach your babies, teach them well” becomes a pointed appeal to those who hold power over the next generation.

Meaning and Dramatic Function

The reflection turns on a contrast between teaching and deception. Andy acknowledges that people sometimes know what they are doing, but judges that they mostly lie; the phrase’s promise of instruction is therefore set against the adults’ failure to act honestly. This is not a moment of forgiveness: Andy has made peace with himself, but that inward settlement has only banked his hatred of the officials who brought him and Charlie into danger. The expression gives his judgment a generational dimension, linking the wrong done to him with the responsibility adults bear toward children.