LESSON 15

FOCUSING ON

THE PERSONHOOD

OF THE STUDENT

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Presented by

THE NATURAL SYSTEMS INSTITUTE

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Infant

INFANT’S DEGREE OF AWARENESS OF CONSEQUENCES

DEGREE OF AWARENESS OF CONSEQUENCESCHILD’S

DEGREE OF AWARENESS OF CONSEQUENCES

DEGREE OF AWARENESS OF CONSEQUENCESPRE-TEEN’S

EARLY TEEN’S DEGREE OF AWARENESS OF CONSEQUENCES

DEGREE OF AWARENESS OF CONSEQUENCES

MID TEEN’S

LATE TEEN’S

DEGREE OF AWARENESS OF CONSEQUENCES

YOUNG ADULT’S

ADULT’S

DEGREE’S OF AWARENESS OF THE CONSEQUENCES OF ONE’S ACTIONS TENDS TO INCREASE DRAMATICALLY ACROSS THE LIFE SPAN. TEENS ARE JUST BEGINNING TO BECOME AWARE.

DEGREES OF AWARENESS OF THE ROLE OF ONE’S PAST AND THE PAST OF THE WORLD IN DETERMINING THE FUTURE. USE OF THE PAST TO UNDERSTAND THE PRESENT AND CHART A COURSE FOR THE FUTURE THAT

AVOIDS NEGATIVE CONSEQUENCES

MID TEEN’S

ADULT’S

InfantINFANT’S DEGREE OF AWARENESS OF

CONSEQUENCES

DEGREE OF AWARENESS OF CONSEQUENCES

CHILD’S

DEGREE OF AWARENESS OF CONSEQUENCES

EARLY TEEN’S

DEGREE OF AWARENESS OF CONSEQUENCES

PRE-TEEN’S

DEGREE OF AWARENESS OF CONSEQUENCES

DEGREE OF AWARENESS

OF CONSEQUENCES

LATE TEEN’S

DEGREE OF AWARENESS OF CONSEQUENCESYOUNG ADULT’S

Dawning awareness of the use of the past in understanding the present and charting the course for the future.

AWARENESS OF THE

PAST

IS

A

COMPARATIVELY

MORE

SOPHISTICATED

SKILL

Degree of knowledge of

consequences

Teachers convey that they are interested in the child’s inner processes as well as its effects on the world. Teachers convey that they want the child to learn from and enjoy experience, gain competence, benefit from good judgment and have a strong, healthy independent will for self reliance, success, and happiness in life. This is the highest priority lesson and it should begin to be taught when the child is an infant. Third parties, Teachers, and peers, become more influential in the early teens.

Child Intending and Adventuring

GOLDEN RULE OF PARENTINGTeacher/Parent Intuiting and Bonding with the Child’s Intentional Processes

• What is the child intending now?– How has the child perceived and assessed the

situation?

• Is the child’s reaction to what he/she sees and assesses pleasant and inviting or unpleasant and uninviting?

– What could the child have imagined he/she could do with this situation? What is the child about to do?

• How is the child going about the activity and with what possible outcome in mind?

– Is the child aware of what effects he/she is having on the objects or persons involved and re directing or correcting to account for these effects?

• What was the outcome and how has the child reacted to the outcome?

– What is the child learning from the whole experience and its outcome?

• How can I assist the child in learning to use, trust, and develop his/her own intentional processes, particularly judgment?

• How is the child going to store this final assessment and revision for future reference?

Here, the child’s behavior is not the

primary concern, noris discipline in the class.

• Inner Processes:– Assessing the situation;

• Experiencing Pleasure/Pain;• Orienting self to situation;

– Envisioning possibilities for action in the situation;

• Carrying out the act with anticipation of outcome;

– Monitoring progress of acts;

– Experience at completion;• Assessing outcome and process and

Revising for future reference;

– Storing in memory in the appropriate category of Schemata.

Catching a Bird in Flight Is Difficult.• Teaching a lesson for life in a busy classroom is difficult.• When the objective is control of behavior, the lesson is

not likely to be learned well.• When the objective is to facilitate the child’s becoming

more mature and sophisticated, this objective is more in line with the child’s own [unconscious] goals.

• There needs to be a medium suited to this objective.• The following are three structural suggestions for

creating such a medium.

I. Support Teams As Surrogate Parents

Alright! This is his plan. We support you. Now, come back after you’ve tried

it and let’s all see how it went.

Members of Support Teams: Teachers, counselors, support services, third parties, anyone >other than parents< that are concerned with the youth’s educational progress and personal growth. [Parents maintain regular meetings with teachers.

WHEN THE FOCUS IS ON THE ADULT’S JUDGMENT

ADULT HAS:SUPERIOR KNOWLEDGE

AND JUDGMENT

CHILD HAS AND RETAINS:IMMATURE JUDGMENT

Parent may say: I know better. I have more experience and knowledge. So, do what I say. Take my advice and orders. Stop talking to me about what you think because you don’t know anything!

Child says: You don’t know what you are talking about. When you are out of sight, I’m going to do my own thing. You make me feel inferior and inadequate and afraid to grow up. I am very anxious and resentful, and afraid of the future. I hate you. You have no confidence in me. I’ll make you sorry.

ADULT HAS: SUPERIOR KNOWLEDGE

AND JUDGMENTTeacher can say: Yes, I have more experience and knowledge, but I want you to develop your own. So, think your alternatives and decision over, use your own judgment, and then deal with and learn from the consequences. I can listen to you and discuss it with you, but you have to learn to use your own judgment.

CHILD DEVELOPS: MATURE KNOWLEDGE AND

JUDGMENT Child says: It is hard and scary to use my own judgment and accept the consequences. I can’t blame anyone else. If I make mistakes, I will try to learn to not make the same mistakes again. Actually, the more I try it, the better I get at it. The more confident and responsible I get, the better I feel about myself and you too.

WHEN THE FOCUS IS ON DEVELOPING THE CHILD’S JUDGMENT

What Is the Principle Involved Here?DEVELOPING GOOD JUDGMENT IN THE CHILDDEVELOPING GOOD JUDGMENT IN THE CHILD

HOW WOULD YOU DESIGN A SYSTEM THAT OPTIMIZED THE POSSIBILITY THAT EACH

STUDENT LEARNED TO USE GOOD JUDGMENT

AND LEARNED MATURITY AND POSITIVE SOCIAL SKILLS

TO ENSURE THAT THEY WERE PREPARED TO BE RESPONSIBLE CITIZENS AS ADULTS?

II. Creating Pro-Social Roles: A Structure of Pro Social Roles and Role Specified Behaviors Replaces Negative Behaviors With Positive, Develops Self Esteem, Emotional Security, a Positive

View of the World, Identification With the School,, and a Wide Range of Positive Social Skills• Planning ahead• Constructive goal setting• Using Mediation with peers• Resolving conflicts• Meeting to discuss issues• Engaging in problem solving• Negotiating• Responsibility and pride in work• Teaching and mentoring• Positive supervision of peers• Responsible decision making• Objective evaluating• Peer counseling and listening• Healthy, sportsman playing• Effective studying-learning• Positive participant in groups• Competing fairly• Cooperating• Sharing• Expressing feelings honestly and

diplomatically• Self discipline and delay of

gratification• Healthy giving and receiving

recognition and awards• Accepting different people• Volunteering but reasonable helping

Creating pro social roles that have a

positive impact on the school

School environment improves and the youth can take partial credit, increasing self esteem and identification with

the school

School becomes a positive host for supporting pro

social roles, making it easier for the teacher to also teach life-

lessons

Students occupying pro social roles

incorporate positive behavior, character, maturity, self worth, pride in the school, and identification

with society instead of alienation

Some pro social role behaviors

Pro social Role

What Kind of a System of Formal Roles could you design that would ensure that all

students had the opportunity serve in a positive, formal role and to be both a facilitator to their peers’

efforts to grow, mature, and succeed academically

and be a receiver from their peers of efforts to facilitate their own

personal, social, and academic growth?

NECESSARY CONNECTIONS• Academic success is not only necessary to pass, to succeed

later in life, but also determines the child’s self esteem, relations with peers, self concept, mood, and whether they have a sense of belonging to the school and the larger society.

• For some children, each time they attempt an academic task and find it impossible, they lose faith in themselves, they lose investment in the task, and they feel their life is a little more hopeless.

• These are the children that fail, drop out, become delinquents, and fail to connect with the world of work later in life.

• This process is very costly to the child now and as an adult, but also costly to society.

• Why does this happen and what could be done about it?

EXERCISES FORFOCUSING ON THE PERSONHOOD OF THE PUPIL