Questions for an Educator - Assignment Example

Ever since Charles Darwin published his book, 'The Origin of the Species' in the nineteenth century, scientific thought has been focused on the theory of evolution. Many experiments have been conducted on the subject of evolution. According to a recent report in The Economist, many of the researches are motivated by "pre-conceived ideas that one lot of people are somehow better than another lot rather than being a disinterested investigation of regional variations in a single species and the evolutionary pressures that have created them.

" (The Economist ) This attitude of some scientific researchers questions the methods and assumptions that they follow. The assumption that experiments on animals give us a better insight into human nature also falls in this category. Human beings belong to the family of mammals, which inhabit the earth with millions of other organisms, from the largest to the tiniest. The erect walk, freeing the hands, the retractable thumb and the big brain with its enormous problem-solving capacity, makes the human being seem to be highly advanced.

But at the same time, we must not forget that all inhabitants of the earth share the same water and atmosphere. This makes them partners in a symbiotic relationship. To think that human beings are advanced animals seems to be logical, but at the same time, the actions of human beings in jeopardizing the health of the planet we live in seems to show that they are not so advanced after all. No other animal on earth causes wars is so greedy that it steals from its own home, nor changes the climate.

An important question that an educator must ask himself is, "Are we innocent or evil Are we predisposed to make appropriate or inappropriate choices" All human beings are born with a conscience that tells them whether an action is good or bad. According to Kantian theory, a human being is predisposed to make choices for the good of society as a whole. As Will Durant puts it, "The most astounding reality of all our experience is precisely, our moral sense, our inescapable feeling, in the face of temptation, that this or that is wrong".

(Durant 270) According to Kant, people follow the moral law regardless of profit or loss to themselves. As human beings, we are predisposed to make the appropriate choices. We are born with a feeling of goodness in our hearts. The so-called evil actions are a result of greed and hatred fomented by circumstances. To the question, "Are we a collection of components or a unitary structure" the answer is obvious. Since we are a part of the planet, with a symbiotic relationship with myriad other living things small and big, we cannot consider ourselves as a unitary structure.

Our nature as human beings has made us gregarious. We learn better in social settings. Since our brains are programmed to learn by the active construction of meaning and design, we acquire knowledge by the Active learning process. Human learning is enhanced by social interaction. Life itself is interaction with other persons or animals.