"Give me a child until he is seven and I will give you the man." Do you agree wi

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   savvydatingposted 12 years ago

   "Give me a child until he is seven and I will give you the man." Do you agree with this philosophy?
   
   Are you much the same now as you were then? Is this statement saying something deeper about how a child's development affects the rest of their lives? Do we change over time? I am interested in your thoughts, humorous or otherwise.
   
   
   

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   MickSposted 12 years ago

   I agree with the the truth of the philosophy, Jesuit, I believe.  However I don't accept the sort of indoctrination that it implies, but I'm sure that correct instruction at the formative years will give more rounded adults.  It is often said that the most important part of a child's education is in the infant and first couple of years of primary education.

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   moonfrothposted 12 years ago

   NO.  BF Skinner, the noted behavioral psychologist, championed this idea a
   loooooooong time ago--1950s, I think.  He also created and built The Skinner Box, an enclosed environment in which a child would be raised under circumstances and with approved stimuli provided only by the experimenter (I believe he might have raised one of his daughters in this thing).  The postulate here s that what is done to us and the environmental forces that come to bear on us are SOLELY responsible for who we are and what kind of adults we become.  I don't think the case need even be that vigorously argued that there are innate characteristics, qualities "in the blood", in our different levels of motivation, determination, strength, weakness, courage, cowardice, one and on--all of which appear to have nothing to do with our environment or how we were raised . of course, how we were raised, the values instilled by our families etc. are hugely important to how we conduct our lives.  But behaviorism is not everything.......................

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      MickSposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      The quote is much older than that, attributed to, I believe, a one Francis Xavier, a 16c Jesuit.

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      savvydatingposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      True Moonfroth, there are many variables that create a psyche. I imagine that severe trauma, after age seven, could likely change who we began to be.  Anxiety caused by trauma may repress one's expression, yet the inner "blood" traits remain fixed...

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      Donnaisabella15posted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Yes, you are right MickS, the quote is much older than the 1950s.

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   Kevin Peterposted 12 years ago

   Ya, definitely. Its true if the child is in the right hand. Many of the brain developments are completed by this age. Hence proper care can change one into a perfect man.

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      savvydatingposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Perhaps not so perfect, but at least they have a better chance (in hell) of developing properly, without the constant uphill battle. I've worked with abused children for whom the war was lost, although they could win an occasional battle.

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   JimTxMillerposted 12 years ago

   Ongoing research into brain development has pretty well established that human cognitive abilities continue well into adolescence and adulthood. The brain, in fact, continues to change throughout all stages of life. ("Normal Development of Brain Circuits", http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3055433/) For me, this pretty much closes the book on the older notion.

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      savvydatingposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Early Life Experiences: The brain exhibits a high degree of circuit plasticity during early development, and neural activity during this “sensitive period” of development can promote lifelong changes in neural circuits. (Gist from the site) Thanks!

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   Lor's Storiesposted 12 years ago

   Yes it was Skinner.
   Most psychologist believe children can be " molded" into anything before seven when we really begin to start making our own decisions. Or when our conscience is formed.
   Our frontal cortex is still very elastic. Our neurons are still not rigid in any away.
   So it really doesn't matter what culture we put our kids into. They are open to anything.
   Do I agree with this? No.
   BF Skinner may have been able to train rats, I don't want to see children trained by reinforcement. That's like making them little robots.
   I'd rather let them make mistakes. We all make mistakes.. I worry about tis being a subtle form of brainwashing.
   I like Carl Jung better,

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      savvydatingposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Thank you Lori's stories. I am going to compare Skinner and Jung in this area. I do love Jung, by the way.

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      Lor's Storiesposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I just think Skinner was weird. We argued all the time in college about his theory,
      Jung is more spiritual.

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   Isa28posted 12 years ago

   No I'm completely changed in my latter years to the person I was in childhood.  I found Jesus and returned to my path to God having become disillusioned by religion in my teens and twenties.  But it does take hard work to remove all the programming that I lived through by teachers& preachers in my young, formative years.
   
   Spending time each day in prayer and meditation has helped enormously.  I found this very helpful: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Love-Ener … 0303402900

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