Service Learning and Adolescents

TFhis friend is described as being prone to act out and present high levels of aggression towards others. It also stated that he has a poor relationship with his parents. This leads me to believe that the latters has raised him under an authoritarian parenting style, which means that his parents would likely use physical punishment as a way to instate their authority (and dominance) and would express their disappointment or anger toward the child’s actions, but without explaining what he did wrong.

This friend who doesn’t take no for an answer is likely mimicking his parents, who always expected him to do whatever they wanted him to do without accepting it any other way. He is constantly rebelling against the authority and engaging in risky behaviors probably as an alternative way to rebel against his parents, something that he was likely not able to do when he was younger because he was maybe afraid of them and felt anxious around them. The reason he does not understand social boundaries is likely because his parents never took the time to explain them to him, and he is not convinced about the rules he must obey for the same reason, and that is why he has a hard time following them.

Children ranging from 3 to 6 years old are in the pre-operational stage. It is a time where they can thinking symbolically and where their language mature (they even start talking to people differently following different social situations). Their memory and imagination improve and they are likely to engage in make-believe plays. However, their thinking is not logical, but rather intuitive. At this stage, children can start talking about things that are out of sight. They also are very egocentric and think that everyone sees the world through their eyes, and have the same perception as they do. Another thing that defines that stage is animism, which is the belief that inanimate objects have feelings and are able to come to life as well.

Children ranging from 7 to 11 years of age are in the concrete operation stage. It is a time where their perception becomes less egocentric and they start understanding that one’s perception and thoughts are unique. They are still however incapable of abstract thinking or formulating a hypothesis, and rather learn through the method of trial an error. This stage is marked by seriation, which is a child’s ability to organize objects by size and transit, which is a child’s ability to understand logical relations and connections, and combine them together to form a conclusion.

People who are staying at home because they were told to shows appurtenance to Kohlberg’s lowest level of moral reasoning, which is the preconventional. These people obey only because they were told to obey by someone and respect the latter’s authority enough not to question it. People who are staying at home in order not to be fined are part of the conventional reasoning level of moral reasoning. They do not really care about the moral aspect of the problem at hand, but understand what is right and what is wrong, not because they believe so, but because they have to the term that it is simply how it is. Their moral judgment and standards are set by higher figures (parents or society) and they understand that if they go against the policy, then they will be punished. They act in accord with society because they want to avoid getting disciplined, not because they think it is the right thing to do.

Finally, the people who stay at home because they believe is the right thing to do are found on the higher level of Kohlberg’s moral reasoning, which is post-conventional reasoning. These people have evaluated all aspects of the problem at hand and have come up with their very own way to look at it, and a unique decision about how they chose to act about it. These individuals are convinced about the righteous aspect of the rules they are following because they fit into their own ethical standard, but can choose to disregard the rules if they are not convinced by their importance.

Service learning is a way for students in high school to engage in volunteering activities that benefit society in a way, and an opportunity for those students to put themselves at work to help others. It is important because it encourages adolescents to be less focused on themselves and allows them to broaden their horizons. It is most effective when the students are offered the choice in the activity they want to partake in, and not when they are pushed to do something they do not want to do, and also when they are given, afterwards, the opportunity to reflect on the work they had done. Service learning gives adolescents a sense of being capable of making a difference in the world, which might be accompanied with a boost of confidence, and it encourage them to do more to help society and partake in actions bigger than themselves.

Parents monitor their children by overseeing their choice of social settings, activities they engage in, and in the friends they choose to stay with. They also supervise their academic efforts. The advantages of parenting monitoring is that adolescents will likely score higher GPAs, and engage less early in sexual behaviors, and when they do they do it in a more safe way. It also facilitates their entering into adulthood. Adolescents are more likely to confide in their parents when a relationship of trust and acceptance has been instated. Parenting monitoring also lessen the chances of an adolescent to partake later on in antisocial behaviors because parents have prior set limits, and these adolescents do not have the desire to test them, because they already had before.

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