How do we develop our sense of morality? Even toddlers know there is a right and wrong beyond the rules in a classroom. While host Jad Abumrad attends playgroup, Robert Krulwich concludes that children are sociopaths. Dr. Judi Smetana refutes that claim while guiding us through her research on the development of moral and social knowledge. And then, more fighting. We'll witness, through a mother's eyes, a pre-school brawl that results in blood and one boy's burgeoning sense of empathy.
Telling another tale of classroom chaos, producer Amy O'Leary takes us along on a trip to right a wrong. She'll confront her fourth grade teacher and drudge up former classmates to put to rest the legacy of the "Homestead" game. In the process, she'll peel back layers to reveal the dark side of formative experiences that shape an individual's morality.
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Brilliant Work!
Comments [5]
HOMESTEAD!!! Please let me know how to find this game! We played that game in 4th grade and I STILL think about it. It is one of my earliest experiences that I distinctly remember having the Machiavelli brought out in me. I NEED to know how to find this game! I have often remembered but have never been able to come up with a name or anything else that would give me hope to find it.
I thought of this episode when I watched Jeremy Rifkin's excellent video on an empathetic civilisation. If you're interested in this topic, I highly recommend checking it out @ http://comment.rsablogs.org.uk/2010/05/06/rsa-animate-empathic-civilisation
What a wonderful application of science and concept to ponder.
This story reminds me of an incident in Palo Alto, CA in 1967 in which a high school teacher uses a scenario game--similar to Homestead--to illustrate how situations like Nazi Germany are created. The classroom experiment got out of hand and the teacher felt so ashamed about what he had done that he didn't talk about it for 6 years. In 1981 a film called The Wave was made about the classroom experiment and more recently a German film (which I feel is even more powerful because of the direct historical implications) called "Die Welle" (The Wave).
In both situations valuable moral lessons are embarrassingly learned by their subjects, yet not discussed openly.
I would like to hear more on this subject. Maybe about cults or conformity.
Thanks, I love the show!
interesting website
I love this website!
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