To the editor:

I also attended the Lied Center School Performance of “A Midnight Cry: The Underground Railroad to Freedom” performed by the Dallas Children’s Theater with my class.

I, too, was slightly disturbed by the laughter during the scene where Lida is whipped by her master, but as an educator, I know that children of this age often don’t know exactly how to handle emotional situations of this nature, and laughing is one of they ways they deal with a situation when they don’t know exactly how to respond.

This is not a situation of playing too many video games or watching too much TV and becoming desensitized to violence. It is a common reaction from children of this age. Do I think that little children don’t always act like little children these days? Yes, but this was not an example of that in my opinion.

It was a wonderful, moving performance that had ties to what we teach in social studies, and I am grateful that we have the opportunity to attend these Lied Center events.

Michele Trompeter,

Lawrence