One of the main characteristics of human beings is our capacity to imitate. Our behaviour, likes and dislikes are mainly conditioned and shaped by others´ actions. This is closely related to education as it is proved that children learn how to behave and treat others first by imitating their parents and later on by imitating their teachers and classmates. Educators state that children should treat others as human beings, recognize them as peers by trying to put ourselves in others shoes, imagine what it would feel like to be in their situation, being as objective as possible; and always having in mind they are not identical to us. That is to say, as Bernard Shaw said: “Do not do unto others as you expect they should do unto you. Their tastes may not be the same.” I’ve found this very interesting, we all have something in common, an underlying characteristic that make us humans: we communicate through language; and unlike animals and plants, our whole world is built on symbols. But at the same time we are all different, each of us is unique and we must show our students the value of this and help them realise they have to respect these differences.
All in all, as children are innate imitators, our actions must be accord with what we teach; otherwise we would be giving an ambiguous message to the them.
7 comentarios:
Hi LU! I really liked your last quote. And it is true: we as teachers give the example and if students imitate us, we should do everything we can to show them true and valuable values.
Another idea that I liked about your post was heterogeneity . We can be similiar in many ways but we sure are different in many others!!!
I also loved the quote, Lu!
I'm not that sure "our behaviour, likes and dislikes are mainly conditioned and shaped by others´ actions". That our range of choices is strongly influenced by our environment, I'd agree, but "mainly conditioned" :-?
And though I do agree children do many things merely seeking for the approval of their "significant elders" (usu their parents, as you've said), I believe that's precisely why we do not talk of (in)moral behaviour in children. In other words, wouldn't moral development start precisely when children stop "imitating others"?
Let me know what you think of all this!
Love,
Gladys
I agree with what you said about moral development. That it really starts as from the time we stop imitating others because that´s when we show our truly and deeper believes that constitute our identity by putting them in "practise."
As regards "our likes and dislikes....", I believe that many people are mainly conditioned by the environment not just influenced. I think that will depend on the grade of maturity the person has or how secure or insecure the person is.
xxx,
Lu
But if human beings can be conditioned... what would differentiate them from animals, Lu? Or from robots, which are pre-programmed?
:-?
Gladys
Interesting! What I could say is that we are different from animals and robots in that we can take decisions consciously, but many times this decisions are conditioned by our environment. This is unavoidable because we are social "animals" who create societies and cultures based on our mutual relations and this relations will always be influential for the human being.
Hugs,
Lu
I also say "interesting" then! All I can add is that an action is "conditioned", then it's not a decision at all, not a human actk and therefore, Ethics has nothing to do with it!
Big hug,
Gladys
Hi!
When we make decisions, there are many things we take into account, such as: if what we are going to do is "good" or "bad", if it will affect or hurt others or not,if it goes along with what we believe etc before we really decide. We think those things maybe without even realizing we´re doing it, but those things condition us in some way and as we live in society those things concern Ethics
am I completely wrong? jajaja or am I just completely worn out? jajaj
hugs,
Lu
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