What do they know, that we do not...?

Researchers may want to refer to my previous answer to avoid
duplication of material:

http://www.answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=402850

"The children know. They have always known. But we choose to think
otherwise: it hurts to know the children know. If we obfuscate, they
will not see. Thus we conspire to keep them from knowing and seeing.
And if we insist, then the children, to please us, will make believe
they do not know, they do not see. They are remarkable--patient,
loving, and all-forgiving. It is a sad comedy: the children knowing
and pretending they don't know to protect us from knowing they know."
-- Maurice Sendak, preface to I Dream of Peace (UNICEF, HarperCollins l994).