The first part of the editorial Straight Out Of The Mouths Of Babes (June 5) makes sorry reading.

Does anyone really believe that seven-year-old schoolgirls are knowledgeable about the issue of illegal water extraction from the aquifer and its negative effects on the Maltese environment?

I think it is right and proper that children should be taught to love and respect nature but using children to communicate a message that the children can hardly understand is not on. What is even worse is that these children were trained by adults - who should have known better - to denigrate politicians and to do so in the House of Representatives.

I do not believe that when the seven-year-old schoolgirl "roundly castigated politicians" - as The Times put it - she was doing so spontaneously, as the expression "straight from the mouth of babes" implies.

It is obvious that she was trained, and coaxed to do it by her superiors. And this is nothing short of abuse of the children's innocence, that moreover also implies unethical indoctrination.

The Times seems to have accepted the idea that there is nothing wrong in training seven-year-old kids to denigrate the representatives of the people in the highest democratic institution of our country. If this is correct, why should we then lament when we find that teenagers do not have any respect for authority?

The fact that I do not disagree with the message does not alter in any way my outright condemnation of the use of innocent children to deliver it.