Talks to Teacher Ch. 15 & Gladwell MP3

R4

Question(s): Do we then say that the impulsive acts in adolescence are the will of the individual? If this is so, then does the fact that the impulsivity decreases in adulthood mean that the older we get the more likely we are to display the narrower sense of the word will as it relates to volition?

James stated in the text that when a student is faced with a difficult task and does not get it the first time he or she is "inhibited" to it and they have a difficult time understanding it from this point on. He mentioned that the teacher should look at this difficulty as a "neural pathology" and not a "moral culpability". To this end, the only way the teacher can help the child is to divert her attention to another task to help the child forget the inhibition and return to it at a later time by making an association to the new information. The old information is presented without the child's knowledge and she does the task easily and correctly, without thinking about it (p. 89). I can easily connect my task of sewing a garment to this "circuitous" method of teaching mentioned by James. On one occasion I was putting a zipper into a garment that was lined. I read the instructions on the pattern and thought I followed it correctly but the zipper was puckered and it was not hidden as it was supposed to be. I tried reading the instructions three more times and attempted the task three more times. It was still incorrect. I had to take the zipper out four times and in doing so the fabric started to fray. So I left the garment and came back to it two hours later but started on another section. I told myself that if I got everything else done I would be forced to get the zipper correct. I worked o the garment late into the night and early morning moving from one section to the other. When I got to the zipper I could not remember what I was having difficulty with and the task went smoothly and I was able to complete the garment at three in the morning. 

In the text James encourages teachers to teach their student the notion of "good" by only presenting them the good. It would seem that this is his answer to free will. If an individual chooses the good because this is the natural propensity then there is no choice and "will" becomes a moot point and the individual is less stressed because the choice he makes is natural and without negative consequence. Lawrence Kohlberg, on the other hand, believed that children had their own moral judgment development. He called children “moral philosophers” who did not make decisions based on consequences of law or feelings of guilt. He postulated that they developed their own moral judgment based on their social relationships (Walsh 2000). If social relationships were of import then these individuals would try to give the right response as it relates to the teacher. So, in James' response to teaching the truth then it would be very easy for children to make the moral decision based on their relationship with the teacher. However, if the truth is contrary to that of other individuals they have social relationships with, would they then be able to go with the non-truth even though the teacher did not expose them to it?

References

Walsh, C. (2000). The life and legacy of Lawrence Kohlberg. Society, 37(2), 38-41. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier Database.