gentleness

In the Child Development Program we have been talking about the Fruit of the Spirit. Yesterday we got to "gentleness". I asked the kids what it meant to be gentle, and not a single child knew. I thought this was a fluke, so I went to my next home and repeated the question. Again, not a single child knew what it meant to be gentle. I was a bit surprised as some of these kids are 16-17 years old. So I came home and conducted an informal survey and asked some of our staff. They also did not know the word gentle, except in the context of "ladies and gentlemen".