Heather Moses, age 9, of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, for her question:

When did the history of civilization begin?

Civilization is a long word and a hard word for all of us to understand. We have to think about it a lot and each one of us must make up our own minds about what it means. Civilization is the most important part of our history and everyone does a little to help it along.

Human beings have lived on earth for ages. But for a long time there were no civilized people among them. Our early ancestors roamed around in tribes, hunting for food. When two tribes met at the same hunting grounds, they fought without mercy until one group ran away. This seemed the sensible thing to do and nobody thought of doing anything else. The people of a tribe often fought each other, maybe just to get the biggest hunk of meat.

When two people argued, they started fighting. A punch on. the jaw was the only way they knew to settle the argument. These early people of long ago, of course, were not civilized. They never for a moment thought of behaving themselves or of being polite. They never thought of being kind and fair with each other.

Then, one by one, the wandering tribes began choosing places and building settled homes This began maybe ten thousand years ago. But some groups went on wandering for ages after the first ones settled. The settled groups had to learn a very different way of life and some of the lessons they had to learn were very hard. After many mistakes, they found that their old uncivilized ways were not so sensible after all.

When people live in settled homes, they must depend upon each other. They need each other to do the different jobs around the settlement. The early settlers needed each other to help with sowing and harvesting and to take turns tending their herds. Gradually they .learned that it was sensible to protect each other. Each person began to watch out for the others. Instead of fighting at every chance, they began to work together. Without knowing it, they were taking the first step to civilization. Some groups started 10,000 years ago. Other groups lived for ages longer as wandering bandits, often raiding the more civilized settlers.

The settled groups liked their busy lives. Every new lesson in civilization made them feel safer and more secure. They learned to trust each other. Sooner or hater they started trading things and learned to be fair with each other. Stealing and cheating still went on but they were frowned upon by most people. Gradually they learned to talk over their problems and to do what was fair for everyone. They talked about the best way to run and manage the whole group. And this led to the great idea of governments with rules and laws for everyone. We do not know who started the first real government    but we do know that every civilized country must have a government for the good of everyone.

Civilization is a long, long story and it is far from finished. Many people, even in civilized lands, still cheat and try to settle their arguments with a punch on the nose. But every one of us can help to make things better. A civilized person always chooses to do the kind and polite thing. Tomorrow, this sensible person may discover a small thing to make lifeiath his fellow man even better. And in this way, civilization takes one more small step ahead.