Beth's Ponderings
What is your
preferred learning style? Visual? Auditory? Experiential (aka hands-on)?
Despite what
you may think your style is, how humans really learn anything is from
observing another person - usually an authority figure or someone deemed more
popular and knowledgeable - or, as we used to say when I was growing up:
“Monkey see, monkey do.”
No matter what
behaviour or action a person exhibits, they have seen another person do the
same thing at least once. Which is why
you have to be so careful around young children as they notice everything and
mimic everything.
Parents,
teachers, and community members express concern about children and peer
pressure - and it is a valid concern - however, I believe that peer pressure is
much worse for adults, because we feel we are immune due to our maturity.
But think about
this for a moment...if we learn our behaviour and actions predominately from
observing those around us - what are we observing and then acting out?
Look around
you...how many of the people you interact with daily have similar habits? The habits can be benign such as stopping for
take-out coffee on the way to work, or more serious such as speeding down the
highway to keep up with the traffic.
Bad news sells
and our electronic devices bombard us 24/7 with bad news, which is perpetuated
over and over and over again. Watch the
news on Monday evening and you’ll probably see the same stories on Friday’s news. And that repeated exposure just reinforces
the legitimacy of the behaviours - even illegal ones - in our psyches.
If society
really wants to end wars, stop violent crimes, curb drunk driving, decrease
drug usage, and other behaviours that are detrimental to health and life, then
education, signage, and news stories that give perpetrators their 5 minute
claim to fame aren't going to stop anything.
People need to
see, on a consistent basis, people showing different behaviours and
actions. It is the only way that changes
can be made.
Peer pressure isn’t all bad, it can be used for good, and when it is,
then we truly see great things happen in and around us.
Beth
Read the complete issue of The Chautauqua here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jY3BVvGh9ztKJRIQW5SC_b8zj8IzUzos/view?usp=sharing
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