Morals and a Child's Social Development

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How does morals pertain to child's social development? Morals pertain to character and behavior from the point of view of right and wrong, and obligation of duty (Funk, 826). Moral education in schools are usually called "hidden curriculum." The conception of the constructivist teacher child relationship as one of the mutual respect in which the teacher minimizes the exercise of the unnecessary authority in relation to children (Devries, 3). The teacher child relationship is facilitated throughout the Lab School. In the explorer's classroom, Megan and the other kids are allowed to make their own decision on what to do during activity and singing time. For instance, Roshanda the assistant asks Megan what song she would like to sing and she says Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star. (observation, 04-1-02,10:24a.m.) Moral learning plays a big part in the Lab School especially when it comes to autonomy and egocentric play. Megan has been observed for sixteen hours since February 25,2002. (Date Log, 2002) She has continued most of her same patterns throughout observation. Some things that Megan has done could be assumed to be egocentric play. Egocentric play is when children typically imitate their elders but play either alone without bothering to find a playmate. (Kamii, 23) During activity time, Megan is trying to fix the blocks that her and Audrey did together. Audrey leaves and goes to see Chris who is the teacher. Chris is asking Audrey what she did this week and he is writing it down. Megan is playing by herself with the blocks. (observation, 3-11-02,11:00am) Megan was imitating what Chris had shown her earlier when demonstrating the blocks. When the kids were outside, Megan starts running around the playground. She is in the front and the other kids are following. After they run they sit down on the bench together huffing and buffing. (observation, 3-19-02,9:43a.m.) This also showed egocentric play imitation. Piaget found four levels in ways children play, egocentric being one of them. (Kamii, 23) Most of Megan's activities were done alone at her own time and pace. Megan's actions fit into the age group of Piaget's play level, which helps contribute to autonomy. Autonomy cold be described when people have there own convictions about what is right or wrong under a particular set of circumstances.

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