Learning Viewpoint Of Others Difficult

Press, Volume C, Issue 29498, 27 April 1961, Page 2

Learning Viewpoint Of Others Difficult

It is no use appealing to a child’s sense of fairness he hasn’t got any,” said Dr. Philip Lawrence, senior lecturer in education at the University of Canterbury, at a meeting of the Christchurch Nursery Play-centres’ Association last evening.

“The world exists for a child only as it is connected to his own actions and wants,” he said.

“We spend so much of our time perceiving the world round us that we tend to forget what a complicated process it is.” he said. “A person blind from birth, who is suddenly able to see. cannot recognise simple shapes like a square—it may take him a long time to learn to recognise them. **lt is the same with young children, although it is difficult for us to realise this, because we can’t visualise what it is like to be an infant.”

The world for an infant was himself, his feelings and his needs, said Dr. Lawrence. •‘For a newborn baby this means food and its source—the mother does not exist as a separate entity apart from this function.” The child had to learn to detach himself from the world round him. to learn that he was a person. Gradually he

learnt that his mother was a person, too. "This is a big piece of learning," said Dr. Lawrence. “Big Step” Objects at first existed only as part of the infant s actions. It was a big step to realise that things still existed although they were not in his line of vision, and that the same object could be seen on separate occasions. “But through the pre-school years waht the child see is more important to him than wbat really is there. “If a young child wants something, he must have it—he can't distinguish between what he wants and what it is realistic for him to get,” he said. “It is a waste of time appealing to a young child's sense of fairness with such reproaches as ‘you are hurting me,' or ‘you are hurting your mother.’ The child does not yet accept that other people have feelings like himself. For example, when children are playing together, they can't co-operate, because to do that they would have to take into account the other person's point of view. “As they grow up they realise that there are other people who are just as important to themselves, but the stage where they can see things objectively is not usually reached until adolescence,” said Dr. Lawrence. Personal Relationships Most adults could drive a car through town with reasonable objectivity, taking into account the ideas and motives of other drivers on the road, but they reverted

to egocentricity in their personal relationships. “It is very important to be aware of the fact that our own point of view distorts W’hat we see,” said Dr. Lawrence. “For example, during the war I was in service on a warship. As I scanned the ocean, I would ‘see’ torpedoes that turned out to be sticks on the water. It is the same with personal relationships—we see what we expect to see in people." He warned supervisors of play-centres that their egocentric feelings might get in their way. “We all build up an idea of ourselves, of the sort of people we are. Perhaps we may think ourselves tolerant, and take a pride in playing this role. The result is that we handle the children not necessarily as they should be handled, but according to our concept of a tolerant person. “Or perhaps we believe ourselves capable of running a play-centre in which no aggressive incidents occur, so we clamp down on such incidents in order to retain this concept of ourselves,” said Dr. Lawrence. “It is very difficult for all of us to take into account the view of the • child in all this. It can only be done by watching children carefully, and noting their reactions. We should frequently say to ourselves, even out loud, ‘How does the, child see this as a person?' “It is a characteristic of maturity in a person that he can see others’ point of view, that he can get himself and the people he works with into perspective," said Dr. Lawrence.