EDRG 3321 BE. #1 Values

Brief Summary of Chapter 1 notes:

Literature is written for many reasons. It can be used to entice, motivate, or instruct. The written word has the ability to open doors to discovery providing hours of adventure and enjoyment. A person’s love for literature should be established early in life. Children who become literate often view reading and writing as activities from which they receive information and enjoyment. They find writing is also a way to communicate with others.

Literature can be used as a way to promote child development. As each child progresses through the stages of development appropriate literature can be found for each. Understanding the types and stages of child development is useful for anyone who works with children.

The stages of development are Language, Cognitive, Personality, and Social development. All children develop at different rates, but must pass through each stage as they mature. Language Development begins during the child’s first few years. It develops quickly with the first words coming at around age one. By 18 months the child begins to put words together. Speech becomes more complex by three and by four or five years old they can produce grammatically correct sentences. Oral development leads to reading and then writing for the child. Cognitive Development involves factors that help children remember, anticipate, integrate perceptions, and develop concepts. Personality Development is how children learn behavior, values, attitudes, and reactions to other people. Social Development involves the child acquiring beliefs, values, and behavior of the society. As they mature they learn what’s acceptable and unacceptable amongst their peers and amongst adults.

Part 2: Values. What is a value? What is the most important value to you and why? Where did you learn this value? Can you teach this value? How do you?

Values make up personal beliefs that are important to us as individuals. There are an infinite number of values that people find important. The importance an individual places in a particular value depends on that individual’s upbringing and life experiences. Many values that are important to someone at one stage of their life may change or be replaced as the person gets older and gathers more life experience.

I consider respect the most important value. Without respect for yourself it’s impossible to live up to your potential as a human being. Respect for others is just as important. When demonstrating respect for others you treat them as you would like to be treated. It involves treating others fairly, with courtesy, and dignity. You strive to look past personal differences and prejudices to solve problems in an adult manner without insults or violence. It allows us to never purposely ridicule, embarrass, or cause harm to others.

I learned respect from my family and it was reinforced at the Elementary School level in the Department of Defense School system. I believe you can teach respect through day to day interactions with students and other adults. The subject of personal values in general can be taught by action and/or addressed as a lesson in the classroom. Initial values will be learned from a child’s immediate family, but can be molded and added to during Social Development, through interaction and classroom instruction.