John Locke an english philosopher believed that a Child is a “Blank Slate” that is formed only through experience. I agree with this statement, others like me can be considered new to this world and all that it has to teach but through experience we learn more and more each day. although I agree with Locke’s argument I believe that not only children are “Blank Slates”, i believe that every human on this earth are considered “ Blank Slates” no matter the age or how smart one is. I believe this due to the fact that there is always something new to learn and there is not anyone in this world that knows everything. The idea of people being “Blank slate” can be seen throughout the world, through literature, studies, and people's own experiences .
There are bountiful examples in literature that display learning through experience, one example of this is in the book Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft when the monster learn how to speak. “My Days were spent with close attention, that I might speedily master the language; and I may boast that I improved more rapidly than the arabian, who
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understands very little, and covered in broken accents, whilst I comprehended and could imitate almost every word that was spoken (Shelly, 101). Although the monster is not a child, he is however unfamiliar to the world he is living in like a child is, the monster learns to speak from the family through experience. “Experience is a great teacher” - John Legend. Dr. Frankenstein learns through his experience of making the monster that he should not have made him thus strengthening Locke’s idea of learning through experience. Another way that children learn is from the experience of acting things out.
During a study conducted by Dr. Sian Beilock a professor of psychology at the University of Chicago on a group of third graders, he split them into two groups to solve the same problem, one group would read the problem out loud twice and the other would act out the problem. Dr. Beilock concluded that “ kids who acted out the story did better on the problem compared to the others that did not.” Along with Dr. Beilock his colleague Susan Goldin-Meadow has also done extensive research into how student gestures can indicate a more nuanced understanding of math and other subjects more often than student who articulate verbally. Golden-Meadow concluded that “ Encouraging kids to use their hands brings out unsaid, and often correct ideas, which make them more open to instruction and more likely to
learn.” Lastly another way that people and children learn is through the experience of failure and learning from what they have done wrong. “Experience teaches slowly, and at the cost of mistakes” - James A. Froude. One considerable way that children learn is through failure, through failure people learn what is not the way to do things along with learning other valuable life lessons. “It’s failure that gives you the proper perspective on success” - Ellen DeGeneres. Through the child's experience of failure, they can learn from their mistake and use that to further their quest for their own happiness and their own success. The Thought that people are “Blank Slates” can be seen throughout the world today from either literature and the media, through studies conducted by doctors and others, and lastly through the experience of others and learning from their experience. I agree with the thought that children are “Blank Slates” that are formed through experience but I also think that this does not only go for children. I also believe this goes for every human living on earth. I believe this because not one single person in this world knows everything. To conclude learning is a lifelong task, through the power of experience we as humans learn more and more about ourselves and the world around us thus making experience the greatest teacher.
As years go by in the life of a human being, it is inevitable to not see a change in that human being, regardless whether those changes are physical and or mental. Supposing that every human being stayed with the mentality of a child, the world would be incoherent because none of the humans would be capable of passing that phase of their life and gaining the knowledge and experience that would allow them to continue to the next phase of their
First, in the magazine article “Brainology,” Carol S. Dweck asserted that the way that students learn and how well they do in school
One main idea of this book was that with the right mindset anything is possible. This is proven in the book when Louie is in the concentration camp and has to hold up a large piece of wood while having the Japanese guards stare at him. This shows that he had the mindset that he could outlast the guards and that he could overcome any obstacles in life.
Alison spent 12 years of her life learning how to learn. She was comfortable with conversation, but could not understand directions. This caused her a lot of self-esteem issues as a young child trying to fit in with all the other kids. She felt an enormous amount of pressure at both school and home. At age seven, she finally came to the realization that she just did not understand. That is when she began to develop coping mechanisms like asking others to repeat and clarify directions, spoken or written. She used the cues of those around her, and observed her classmates and reactions...
Siegler, R., & Alibali, M. (2005). Children’s Thinking Fourth Edition. Prentice Hall Inc. Upper Saddle River NJ.
A classroom of thirty is filled with a diverse group of students that think in all different ways. Each child’s brain processes informat...
Locke (Cleverly & Phillips 1986 p.26) believed that our understanding of the world is based on our experiences and that our reflection and understanding of those experiences shape us. I think that part of childhood is learning through experiences and exploring through play and that when you are able to reflect back on these, learn from them and use them to make rational and logical decisions, childhood is beginning to come to an end.
Steve Pinker’s The Blank Slate evaluates what many consider to be common knowledge of human nature and proves it wrong. Two arguments of the framework of reality and the influence of behavioral genetics yield the most convincing argument that I found changed how I view myself and how my world view was developed.
Before that, children were thought to have less intellectual abilities than adults. This theory models the steps children move through in thought and logical thinking, how their learning differs from adult learning, and the importance of mastering one stage before moving on to the next. The way that children grow and develop their viewpoint of life depends on their ability to form a baseline of knowledge, then question and cognitively think through how an experience differs.
According to social cognitive theory, people and their environments mutually influence each other (Ormrod, 2011). People learn from the environment they are in, people they interact with, and behaviors they watch. People can learn by observing others and as they become older they can set their goals based on the accomplishments and the results of that learning. The video of the 4th grade, Canoga Park is about learning by observing, listening, and discussing a subject among the class-mates (4th Grade, Canoga Park, n.d.). In the video teacher is trying to teach the students about the importance of printing press. The teacher asked the students to divide in the groups of two called “pair and share” to discuss the views between two students first and then he asks the students to answer in a bigger group setting to assess whether the students learned the subject or not. The purpose of...
During elementary school, children are not only developing their physical bodies, but there minds as well. They a...
Humans are experience based creatures, we learn from our mistakes, kids are not born with their knowledge. Blank slate, means that people can be whatever they want to be, they have no
In this article titled, “Teaching Without Talking” by Jacqueline Hansen, it talks about how 90% of what people say and feel is through non-verbal action and not their words. Hansen talks about how children are taught both verbal and nonverbal communication through the people they are around, be it their teachers, parents, or other people that are present in their lives. Hansen says that on average American parents only talk to their children about 38 minutes each week and teachers might engage with a student for up to seven hours per weekday in that time they are sending innumerable verbal and nonverbal messages to students. Most student will believe more in what they see then hear if they
There have been tons of things that I have learned and been taught in my life, by a number of people such as family, teachers, or even friends on occasion. The things they taught me vary from math and other related subjects to just some truly simple yet meaningful life lessons. However, there is nothing quite as unique, quite as special as a person teaching themselves a life lesson. It really is an amazing accomplishment for a person to teach themselves something. It is not quite as simple as another person teaching them something because it is not just the transferring of information from one person to another. The person instead has to start from scratch and process the information they have in their mind in order to come up with a new thought
...tention to how people react to one another’s comments, guessing the relationship between the people and guessing how each feels about what is being said. This can inform individuals to better understand the use of body language when conversing with other people. It is also important to take into account individual differences. Different cultures use different non-verbal gestures. Frequently, when observing these gestures alone the observer can get the wrong impression, for instance, the listener can subconsciously cross their arms. This does not mean that they are bored or annoyed with the speaker; it can be a gesture that they are comfortable with. Viewing gestures as a whole will prevent these misunderstandings. Non-verbal gestures are not only physical, for example; the tone of voice addressing a child will be different from the way it is addressed to an adult.