Children Learn What They live
Children are constantly learning. Teachers educate children and give them knowledge in an academic sense, and the media teaches them about entertainment and things happening in other parts of the world, but children mainly learn from their parents. Parents influence their kids in ways no one else can. Sometimes it is positive, but the examples that will be used with show parent’s influence from a negative aspect. It’s up to the parents to decide what to teach their children, as children will learn from them the most.
One of the times children learn is when their parents are yelling at them. In the image to the right, there is a father figure who seems to be yelling at his daughter. The girl’s eyes, ears and mouth are closed, showing that she is becoming quiet, withdrawn, not wanting to talk or hear the things going on around her, as well as her not wanting to see the people doing this to her. The father in this image is just a shadow, illustrating that he is a dark and negative figure in her life. In the background, you can see the girl’s shadow, which is darker than the father’s. This displays that the darkness from the father and his words are transcending into the girl, teaching her that getting yelled at is a part of life, and giving her dark thoughts that the father is putting into her mind, thinking that she is as bad as the father says she is.
Kids can also learn a different way when getting yelled at. In this next image, a mother is yelling at her son. The kid who is getting yelled at is rolling his eyes, expressing that he has learned that ignorance and rudeness is tolerated and should be used in life. He is also wearing a tanktop, which is the stereotypical shirt that jocks and bullies wear, characterizing the boy as a kid who has learned to take the anger he receives at home, and bring it to school to use against other people. This may stick with him throughout his whole life, until one day he is yelling at his kid, which starts the cycle over again.
Sometimes the parents are not yelling at the kid, but instead each other. These actions may not be targeted at the kid, but children still learn from what is going on around them. In this image, The parents are yelling at each other in the background, with the solemn kid in the foreground. You can see there is a significant distance between him and the parents, showing that he is learning to feel divided in life, as well as arguments being commonplace and an acceptable and effective form of communication. This child is also wearing a tanktop, just like the jock from the previous image. He is learning that when you have a difference in ideas with someone, you should let them know your way by force or aggression.
Sometimes, there are moments where children learn bad things from parents who think they are raising their kids the right way. The parents take care of their kids too much, and end up over protecting and sheltering them. In this image, a parents arms are surrounding a little patch of land where the parent’s kids are standing. This shows the parent trying to take care of the kids, but too much so that they feel trapped and cannot go further than arms reach of the parents. They learn to become reclusive, as well as isolated and withdrawn from the world. They have no knowledge of what is beyond that patch of grass they are standing on, which is why everything outside the parent’s arms is blank.
There are many ways parents influence their children, and many other ways children learn how to think and live. It is important to teach them the right things early, as the thoughts, beliefs and ideas they learn are harder to get rid of at older ages. If children learn the right things, their children will learn from them those things as well. Children learn what they live, it is up to the parents to teach them right.
Works Cited
-Gerber, Hestie B. "10 Most Common Traits of Potential Serial Killers - Listverse." Listverse. ListverseLtd, 2 Jan. 2013. Web. 15 Jan. 2015
-Riobux. "Feminist Fable: The Problems Of Applying Sociological Theory To Videogames." Destructoid. N.p., 14 Oct. 2014. Web. 15 Jan. 2015
-Jochnowitz, Jay. "(Over)protecting Kids?" The Observation Deck. N.p., 21 Apr. 2011. Web. 15 Jan. 2015
This is a very well written essay! I thoroughly enjoyed your analysis of the images you choose. I feel that the last image you choose is the one that shows the greatest impacts parents have on children. I believe that now a days kids are being more and more sheltered and that is why school is getting more and more boring because over the years kids get hurt doing different activity's and then the moms and dads sue the school then that activity gets band. One example of this is playing with snow in elementary school where you where not even aloud to pick up snow. This shows how overprotective parents not only influence their own kids but can influence other kids as well. The topic you choose was really good and so was your evidence! wish i could have seen your presentation!
ReplyDeleteGood job Brennan! This was very well done and your analysis of the images are very well done. I really liked your third image and it, personally, shows the greatest impact on kids today. As you may know, my father works on the Off-Site program for ODSS, so he deals with many kids with broken homes and families. He says that the biggest reason many of the students are in his program, are the bad influences their parents have on them and how their parents are not around them enough, or are always yelling at them. This shows and helps prove your third image, and thesis. Hope fully next time I can see you present as I am sure you would be great at it. Good job.
ReplyDeleteThank you both Richard and Jeshua. Richard, you make a good point about the snow rule from elementary school. I had not even thought of how parents influence other kids as well as there own. And Jesh, I did not know that your father worked at the school, but I am glad you have someone in your life that can help give reinforcements to the idea of my thesis. Thank you both for replying to my ISU.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed how you analyzed small details and I agreed with every point you made. I personally have known people who have been abused either physically, emotionally or verbally and that has changed them for the rest of their life. Unfortunately, abuse can be a vicious cycle and could cause the child who was abused when they were younger to abuse there own child later in life. Sometimes in the lucky cases those people can grow up to help abuse victims and stand up for themselves later in life. Their should be a lot more opportunities for kids to reach out to get help from an abusive situation and to educate children what abuse is.
ReplyDeleteGreat ISU Brennan. I totally agree with you that parents need to be especially careful with how they act around kids because they never know what the kids might pick up on or how it will affect the kids later on in life. If the kid hears the parents constantly yelling at each other then later on in their life they may act the exact same and continue the cycle with their own kids. Also I agree that some parents are way too overprotective. Like Richard said with the snow rule parents and teachers can be way too overprotective sometimes. Even though they may think that they are helping the children they are really preventing them from having experiences and this can be more harmful than good.
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