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Reflections on Finding Inner Strength through Good Stories I think inner strength is deeply connected with character. It is essential to have strong and value-based character in order to be capable of finding inner strength even in simple stories, through seen analogue between things happening in a story and your life. When you see these analogues, you can foresee the sequence of events in the story and what is more important in your life. You start seeing where the true value is, and where your heart belongs.
But the basis of the ability to absorb the strength lies in the character you have. Therefore, in my paper, I will put more emphasis on bringing up character and learning moral values, as they appear to be the heart of ones character. Today, when materialism and money seem more important than compassion and honesty, children need help if they are to become strong in good people. Character education confronts this attitude by teaching kids to respect themselves and others and to take responsibility for their own behavior. Efforts to teach values are often greeted with the retort, "Whose values?" Today's character education movement is built on the premise that there are some underlying qualities that are so broad that they transcend religious, political, and cultural differences.
Teachers at the school "nourish the moral imagination of our students by providing inspiring models from history, science, and literature. " Students also keep character journals where they apply the virtues to their own experiences, and they put virtues into action by participating in community projects like helping out at a local soup kitchen. (Wynne, 1989). It is worthy to ask yourself: Are the hours in your day filled with work, TV, shopping, and home maintenance? Because these activities require so much time and energy, they come across to children as "what our family values most. " Make sure that how you spend your time is balanced with what you hold dear. If it's important to you that your children read, make sure they see you with reading material in your hands more often than the remote control.
If you want your kids to be physically fit, get out and get moving yourself -- and invite them to come along. If organized religion is important, attend worship services regularly - and insist that they do too. If you place a high value on education, be a lifelong learner yourself. Do you want your kids to respect the environment? Don't be afraid to set rules that reflect your values as well "In this family we eat dinner together. " (Ryan, 1997). There is no substitute for the kind of learning that comes through reflection on direct experience.
The need for this situated learning, however, does not end with the completion of student teaching and teacher or parent certification. Imagination plays an important role in creating different life or story scenarios, acting in these scenarios and finding power and faith in what they and what they start to believe. William Kilpatrick, in his work: A Guide to Teaching Your Child Moral Values through Stories, makes the case for the relationship between storytelling and moral behavior. He stresses the centrality of imagination. They say: "Explaining the difference between right and wrong is important of course but explanations fail to touch children on the level where it really matters - the level of imagination. The word comes from image - a mental picture and these pictures have a way of sticking in our memory and making demands on our conscience long after the explanations have been rubbed thin by frictions of daily life.
We need moral propositions and moral principles, but we need images too, because we think more readily in pictures than in propositions. And when the moral principle has the power to move us to action, it is often because it is backed by a picture or image. " Flannery O'Connor once said: "A story is a way to say something that can't be said any other way You tell a story because a statement may be inadequate. " Kilpatrick continues: "Imagination is one of the keys to virtue. It is not enough to know what is right. It is also necessary to desire to do right. Desire, in turn is directed to a large extent by imagination. This is why books are so important for moral education.
They inspire a love of goodness. The dramatic nature of stories enables us to 'rehearse' moral decisions, strengthening our solidarity with the good. But if the desire to do right is not developed at an early age our other efforts to teach values to children won't bear much fruit. " (Kilpatrick, 1992). Character educations fix-the-kids orientation follows logically from the belief that kids need fixing. Indeed, the movement seems to be driven by a stunningly dark view of children and, for that matter, of people in general. A comprehensive approach [character education] is based on a somewhat dim view of human nature, acknowledges William Kilpatrick, whose book Why Johnny Cant Tell Right from Wrong contains such assertions as: Most behavior problems are the result of sheer willfulness on the part of children. (Kilpatrick, 1992).
Despite or more likely because of statements like that, Kilpatrick has frequently been invited to speak at character education conferences. But that shouldnt be surprising in light of how many prominent proponents of character education share his views. Edward Wynne says his own work is grounded in a tradition of thought that takes a somewhat pessimistic view of human nature. The idea of character development sees children as self- centered, in the opinion of Kevin Ryan, who directs the Center for the Advancement of Ethics and Character at Boston University as well as heading up the character education network of the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Yet another writer approvingly traces the whole field back to the bleak worldview of Thomas Hobbes: it is an obvious assumption of character education, writes Louis Goldman, that people lack the instinct to work together. Without laws to compel us to get along, our natural egoism would lead us into a condition of warre one against another. (Goldman, 1996).
How do stories help to encourage character? The authors suggest that stories do it in four ways. Stories provide codes of conduct. They acquaint us with the ideals by which people in our society hope to live, values such as honesty, courage and kindness and second, they offer us good examples of people trying to live by those standards. Stories help to broaden the mind. Mark Twain writes: "travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness broad, wholesome, charitable views cannot be acquired, by vegetating in one's little corner of the earth. " It is the same with books.
They give us a bigger picture of the world and its inhabitants. The authors say: "While sitting safely at home we get to meet people in different lands and different centuries. We also get to meet people of different types. One result is that we become better judges of character. By meeting certain character types in stories we are better prepared for the day when we will meet that type in person. A young person who reads widely gets more than the pleasure of plot and setting; he or she gets an introductory course in character studies. (Wynne, 1989).
But acquaintance with a wide variety of 'types', important as it is, is only the beginning. With some of the characters we meet in stories, we form a much deeper relationship than acquaintance. We enter imaginatively into their lives. We form a bond of empathy and even identity. And psychologists tell us that no other factor is more crucial to moral development than empathy.
The ability to see and feel things as others see and feel them is the key that unlocks our prison house of self-absorption. We sometimes forget that the first gift of a story is transport. The story takes us somewhere. More important, it takes us out of ourselves. To enter a story we must leave ourselves behind, and this, it may be argued, is what is needed to get a proper perspective on ourselves. The willingness to let go of self-concern is a pre-requisite for both moral health and mental health. " (Goldman, 1996).
Another thing that makes us strong is attaining of self-control. This is another trait that a person trying to get through reading. In fact, at least three assumptions seem to be at work when the need for self- control is stressed: first, that we are all at war not only with others but with ourselves, torn between our desires and our reason (or social norms); second, that these desires are fundamentally selfish, aggressive, or otherwise unpleasant; and third, that these desires are very strong, constantly threatening to overpower us if we dont rein them in. (Zan, 1994). Collectively, these statements describe religious dogma, not scientific fact.
Indeed, the evidence from several disciplines converges to cast doubt on this sour view of human beings and, instead, supports the idea that it is as natural for children to help as to hurt. Suffice it to say that even the most hard-headed empiricist might well conclude that the promotion of pro social values consists to some extent of supporting (rather than restraining or controlling) many facets of the self. Stories also help us to make sense out of our lives. The authors give a sense that our struggles and sufferings have meaning. The supreme gift of stories is their reassurance that these can be found. By giving us a larger vision a story may help us find meaning in experiences that might otherwise seem chaotic or pointless.
Because there are many more things that don't make sense to them, children need this reassurance every bit as much as adults. " (Ryan, 1997). Finally, stories also help to make sense of morality. The authors again: "How well do motives for virtuous behavior hold up without the sense that there is something like a plot in our lives? Not well at all. If life is 'a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing, ' then it doesn't really matter how one behaves.
But to feel that one has been given a role to play in a meaningful story, and that one the has the chance of playing one's part well - that is a considerable source of motivation. The voyage from childhood to responsible adulthood is long, difficult and stormy. Good stories provide compass, chart and bearings for the journey. " (Kilpatrick, 1992). Words: 1, 732.
Bibliography: Goldman, L. Mind, Character, and the Deferral of Gratification, Educational Forum, vol. 60, 1996, p. 136. As part of educational reconstruction, he goes on to say, we must connect the lower social classes to the middle classes who may provide role models for self-discipline, p. 139. Kilpatrick, W. A Guide to Teaching Your Child Moral Values through Stories. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992.
Kilpatrick, W. Why Johnny Cant Tell Right from Wrong. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992, pp. 96, 249. Ryan, K. In Defense of Character Education, in Nucci, 1997. p. 16.
Wynne, E. Transmitting Traditional Values in Contemporary Schools, in Larry P. Nucci, ed. , Moral Development and Character Education: A Dialogue. Berkeley, Calif. : McCutchan, 1989, p. 25. Zan, B. Moral Classrooms, Moral Children: Creating a Constructivist Atmosphere in Early Education.
New York: Teachers College Press, 1994, p. 253.
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Research essay sample on Reflections On Finding Inner Strength Through Good Stories
