The Courage To Exceed Ourselves

4 Pages 938 Words

Michelle Beers

The Courage to Exceed Ourselves
If you give a child a book but do not teach them to read will the child understand the story? If only half of a lesson is presented to a child, the full picture is unattainable. There are many personality types and a varity of role models available to children today, to choose right from wrong is often difficult. In our society there are adults who are blind of the truth by choice, they take only the facts that are attractive to them and form a canon or belief that is not justified. Then, pass along their opinions to the children in their midst as if it were truth.
Most religions, governments, and families are attempting to achieve, on a basic level, the same goal, but are using to many different approaches. This behavior can be observed throughout time in any country from daily family life to government policies, laws, and in the separation of religious beliefs or practices. For example: a child born to a Mormon family raised with heavy influence by the church could have easily been born into a Catholic family and raised within the influence of the Catholic beliefs. When the Mormon child grows to an adult and stands within their church, can a Catholic or any other person of different religious beliefs honestly chastize them for following and abiding by the standards of life they were taught?
We instill fear of the world outside of the familiar into to our children from the day they are born. In every individual home there is a history to learn from. Often those histories are not all laid before the child. This creates only a partial picture for the child to learn values and make decisions from and with this try to understand the past that follows them to the future. We teach our children not to talk to stangers, to take a stand for what they believe in, and to be cautious of the unknown. Then we push them out into the unknown and hope they will find a way to imp...