Teacher here. I would say that the idea of innocence comes from kids being a blank slate. Kids aren’t typically inherently mean but are heavily affected by their surroundings and who they learn from. It’s not always the same for every kid but bad environment is going to produce a kid that is angry and mean that will lash out at others.

I wouldn’t agree with the idea that schools are cesspools and every kid is awful to each other. Every school is so different and I would say that at my school only 5% of kids are actually mean with malicious intent. Some don’t know better and will learn as they grow and most are genuinely good little people.

Yeah they’ve kinda learned that they are safe in Rocky Mountain National Park and in Estes so they’re chill. Still wild animals though and I wouldn’t really wanna be that close to one like in the picture.