Early in the second season of "The Andy Griffith Show," I ventured a suggestion for a line change to make it sound more "like the way a kid would say it." I was just 7 years old. But my idea was accepted and I remember standing frozen, thrilled at what this moment represented to me. Andy asked me, "What you grinnin' at, youngin'?" I said it was the first idea of mine they'd ever said yes to. Without a pause, Andy responded for all to hear: "It was the first idea that was any damn good. Now let's do the scene." -- Ron Howard in the Los Angeles Times, July 3, 2012Fifty years ago, Andy Griffith, who died this week at age 86, understood something about children… That children are inclined to play "up" to engage the adults who surround them; that children are shaped by opportunities to contribute meaningfully; that they appreciate people who appreciate them and treat them with respect by talking to them, not at them, and never down to them.
"That inclusiveness," Mr. Howard says, "that allowed a child to truly be a part of something as unique and memorable as "The Andy Griffith Show" is something I will forever be grateful for."
I feel the same gratitude toward Bryant Kendall, Verlyn Giles, Bob Norwood, Ruth Waggoner — people who took me seriously, though they knew I was still being formed, and treated me as a "Thou" when most of their peers regarded me as an "It."
Do you remember such people from your childhood and adolescence? I hope so. And I hope I will show younger people the grace those people showed me.
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