issue130

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issue130 "How children are socialized today determines the destiny of society. Unfortunately, we have not yet learned how to raise children who can help bring about a better society."

This statement actually includes two claims: (1) the destiny of our society is determined by how children are socialized today, and (2) we have not learned to raise children to the person qualified for bring a better society. I do not agree with the former. Yet with the latter, my contention is different according to the exact meaning of “a better society” the speaker mentioned.

The destiny of the society is determined by many other factors except the socialized extend of children. Admittedly, social prosperity depends on the efforts of people from all different areas and their cooperation. People must communicate with each other, get knowledge from outside realms, and learn to compromise with others when conflicts appear to keep the unification of the group and ensure best outcomes. However, individual ability and character is the most fundamental ingredient which is the brick constructed the high building of the society. A person can hardly survive if lacking living skills and unable to make any contribution to the society. Nor can a person survive if he is short of all the good characters of human being, like compassion, benevolence, justice, honesty and so forth. Therefore, only if children first master the basic skills which is necessary helping them survive in the society in future and possess of all the qualities that make them agreeable to others can they live together in harmony and then bring a better society.

If by “a better society”, the speaker means an ideal or even perfect society that has no suffering or pain and every member is satisfied, the kind of condition we have never achieved from the very beginning of the society formation, then we indeed do not know how to teach our children to get it, because it is a society of no possibility. Everyone would not disagree that there are certain disadvantages in human nature, like greed and aggression, lead to world’s permanent issues- such as poverty and war. And we cannot get absolute justice and equality because we have different personal interests and individual value conceptions, and we can never eliminate all the conflicts.

If “a better society” means that certain limitations and defects realized in our recent society and we have decided to change and improve, then I believe we are able to teach our children to establish a better society. From very young, we have been taught to study hard as a diligent person, show charity and respect to the poor, economize on electricity and water, and so forth. All these instruct can make the children more self-confident, the inferior more positive, the environment more beautiful, and the society more harmonious and stable and eventually better.

In sum, how children are socialized is not the only factor that determine the society’s destiny. I concede that we do not know exactly how to foster children to organize an ideal or a perfect society. However, we do instruct them by all the means we consider available to make the society a better one.

[ 本帖最后由 liuliu8389 于 2008-3-26 23:05 编辑 ]

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