Learning Right And Wrong

It seems like a thousand "experts" have written books or been on TV or otherwise flaunted their ideas to the public. They all seem to have different ideas but they generally find some specific and shallow answer to curing it. The effectiveness of these approaches has been less than ideal.

It seems that today educators and parents work under the impression that a single clear, logical presentation of a particular fact or subject will forever imprint in a child's brain forever. Well, that's probably true. However, words or incidents that seem to contradict that lesson ALSO get imprinted. A child's brain totals up all of these inputs to come to a conclusion on the ACTUAL fact, as best as he or she could understand it.

An additional but related factor is at work. Repetition. It used to be that students in elementary school had to recite the alphabet and do addition and subtraction and multiplication problems until they were coming out of their ears. Kids generally hated that but that terrible amount of repetition certainly ground those basic facts into their brains. The three Rs. Basic to future life. Close to basic for civilization today.

Modern schools are so occupied in presenting a vast diversity of information to students that they no longer really pound those basic facts in often enough for them to get permanently embedded in their brains.

The alphabet and simple math DO have some special things going for them. The letters are ALWAYS the same and they're ALWAYS in the same order. Five plus seven ALWAYS equals twelve.

Imagine how difficult it would have been to learn addition if in one class the teacher taught you that 2 + 2 = 4 and in a different class the teacher taught you that 2 + 2 = 3. Without a consistent answer, learning addition would have been a nightmare!

Now, consider a subject where there IS no absolutely obvious right answer. What's a kid to do? Some examples:

• A parent goes ballistic when they find that their teenage child has experimented with smoking. But they smoke, even if it's only an occasional cigarette.
• A parent has very different moods depending on how the day went at work. Every evening after dinner, the child is told to do his/her homework and clean their room. After a good day at work, the parent is in such a good mood that they forget to check on compliance with these things. After a bad day at work, the parent may be looking for somebody to yell at to vent some emotions from the day, at there might be regular checks on such days. The child soon learns to make sure to do the homework/cleaning on those bad days, but that he/she can often slide by on good days, because even if a check was made, the parental response would be quiet and calm. Is this a good pattern of reaction to develop in a child?
• Similar to above, but no mood swings, but only rare checks made on compliance. A child's life if filled with a multitude of interesting and fun things to do. If a child sees a regular opportunity to skip homework, the perception is that a LOT more fun could be had.
• Similar to above, but a check of homework and room is done EVERY night at a specific time. This consistency presents an element of structure in a child's life. It also fosters an attitude of responsibility toward one's duties.

Most behavioral subjects are FAR more complicated than this.

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C Johnson, Theoretical Physicist, Physics Degree from Univ of Chicago