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From: joel@peora.UUCP (Joel Upchurch)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: corporal punishment in schools -Reasoning with children
Message-ID: <1612@peora.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 10-Sep-85 10:26:27 EDT
Article-I.D.: peora.1612
Posted: Tue Sep 10 10:26:27 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 11-Sep-85 06:44:26 EDT
References: <1075@sphinx.UUCP> <7800422@inmet.UUCP> <1583@peora.UUCP> <1205@ihlpg.UUCP>
Organization: Perkin-Elmer SDC, Orlando, Fl.
Lines: 29

>I disagree.  Children old enough to understand speech are  old  enough
>to  reason  at  some level.  Children old enough to ask the reason for
>some rule deserve an honest answer at their level. "Do this because  I
>say so" is not good enough.  Do not underestimate your child.  A child
>who percieves that good  behavior  consists  in  following  a  set  of
>seemingly  arbitrary  rules with no underlying justification will have
>difficulty in developing an internal moral code.
>-- Bill  Tanenbaum  - AT&T Bell Labs - Naperville IL ihnp4!ihlpg!tan

        I hate to tell you this, but learning to obey arbitrary  rules
        is good practice for real life.  A don't see anyone as needing
        a 'moral code' per se.  All you need is a set of well  learned
        behavior patterns, that allow you to move through society with
        a minimum of friction.  And some of those patterns  are  quite
        arbitrary.

        I have my own ethics, but I would despair to explain those  to
        an  adult,  much  less  a child.  The only way you can teach a
        child your ethics is by example.  I  don't  recall  my  father
        ever  explaining  his ethics to me, but in most ways I seem to
        live by the same standards as him.

        Even for those rules that appear to have some rational  basis,
        such  as  those  intended  to  insure  the  child's health and
        safety, how can those be explained in any meaningful terms  to
        a  child  who  has  no  referents for the concepts of disease,
        injury, or death?  Without such referents any  explanation  is
        gibberish or worse.
							Joel Upchurch