Do children think for themselves, or do they think according how their parents/supperiors think?

Answer 1

Children are like a blank slate when they are born. As a concerned and involved mother (and a social worker), I realized that my daughter would get "tapes" in her head from somewhere....and I decided that I would put tapes in there first!

I have been diligent in teaching her that "Good choices give you a good life; bad choices give you a bad life," and then illustrating that through actions. Each time a situation arises, I see it as a learning experience.

My daughter is now 16 and just realizing how powerful it has been to have a mom who cares so much. She is abroad as an exchange student and is now instant messaging me about the "dysfunctional" family in her new country. She is learning that the things I have taught her (the tapes) from the beginning are now making sense.

I do believe that we imprint our children. In many ways we leave our lessons with them. So, I think that we guide our children into observing and learning certain ways; THEN I think that the child formulates their own opinions. But it is our job to guide them, to give them information to make good decisions, and to be there to help them through problems.

So, essentially, I do believe that parents and "superiors," do put things into kids' minds. However....each person is an individual, and we each have our own personalities. Therefore, the messages (or tapes) we get from our parents/superiors blend into our own personal experiences and individual (DNA..if you must label it) personalities.

The combination of what we learn from others and our own unique blend of personality makes us what we are.

Answer 2

I'm a teacher, and I'd have to say that my job would be so much easier if children didn't think for themselves!

Knowledge and reasoning cannot just be handed from one person to another. Carl Sagan said, "It is the birthright of every child to discover the universe anew." Constructionists say that every learner has to build their own knowledge from their own experience and the information that parents, teachers, peers, random strangers and the media throw at them.

If a child has no prior experience to connect a random bit of data to, that bit of data will just float on by. If they can connect it to their own experience, or something that happed to their friend or their Uncle Ed, even if it's like something they saw on TV or read about, then that information is their own. They have a place for it, and they can find it again.

Now, teachers, parents, other adults, and the media do have a great deal of power in forming what kids know and how they think. They have some control over what the child is exposed to. Parents can read aloud to their children, or let their children catch them reading for fun. If the child sees that the parent enjoys reading, they're more likely to enjoy reading. And yes, if the parent smokes and seems to get some pleasure out of it, the child is more likely to smoke.

On the other hand, even a very small child can make decisions for themselves independent of the parents. I can remember my older sister bringing home a Weekly Reader from her kindergarten and showing me pictures of the lungs of a healthy person and the lungs of a smoker. I said, "Ewww! I never want to smoke!" And I never did, even though both my parents smoked.

I also remembered how excited I was to figure out on my own from the picture that my lungs were inside my ribs. I made the guess, my family said yes, and that little piece of knowledge was my very own for ever and ever!

As a general rule, though, the influence of parents and teachers is very important to children. The influence of peers is very important to adolescents, teenagers, and adults. The vast majority of people pick and choose very carefully the small percentage of times they will go their own way in opposition to their peers.

Answer 3

There are many different views/ideas to this. It depends on all sorts of factors, such as temporment, attachment, and the responsive/type of caregiving a child receives. It also depends on the age group, there are many types of development of selfs (e.g. I-self, me-self, categorical-self, etc.) The development of identity and self-concept are important for a child to think on their own; individualism is highly valued in the U.S. But, in Asia, e.g. Japan they have the saying "The nail that sticks out gets hammered back in." Another factor is "what" they are thinking about. When it comes to moral issues, even if a 1st-grade teacher hypothetically said hitting an animal is okay, most kids with a socially acceptable developing morals would say no, even though an adult/authority figure is saying it is okay. This is a very broad topic with many possibilities/aspects to discuss, but in general I would say they would take on the values of their parents/caregivers, but there is always exceptions of resiliency. Of course, many of these ideas that children have been taught/learned/observed from their parents, authority figures, and society/culture come into question during adolescence.

Answer 4

Children are easily influenced and do not readily think for themselves. That comes more and more into play as the child matures into the teen and late teen years.

Answer 5

Just think about politics. When a kid says, I like george bush, others around almost always say, if they are a democrat, well that's because your partents are

i hate that