How to Teach Children to Think and Act Fairly

By George Giuliani Ph.D.

This book is about teaching children how to think and act fairly—hence, its title. It is not about Rudolph or about Santa Claus. The story of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is simply a medium through which this author hopes to teach children to think and act fairly. The optimist in me expects that this book will prove to be a useful teaching tool that encourages children to dis-cuss and debate what is fair or not fair in this story. It is hoped that this book will help win over the hearts and minds of children so that they will never desire to bully or mock others.

• Language: English
• Publisher: George Giuliani Ph.D.
• Release date: Sep 26, 2012
• ISBN: 9781301277773

Book preview

HOW TO TEACH CHILDREN TO THINK AND ACT FAIRLY

GEORGE A. GIULIANI, Ph.D.

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2012 CGRC Publishing Corporation

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recorded, photocopied, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review. The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrightable materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.

ISBN: 978-0-578-10818-6

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Website: www.Teachingchildrenaboutfairness.Com

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

DEDICATIOIN

PREFACE

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER ONE: HOW IT ALL STARTED

CHAPTER 2: REJECTION

CHAPTER 3: CONFORMITY

CHAPTER 4: SEXISM

CHAPTER 5: FAVORITISM

CHAPTER 6: MOCKING

CHAPTER 7: EXTRAORDINARY BEHAVIOR

CHAPTER 8: HYPOCRITICAL BEHAVIOR

CHAPTER 9: UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES

CHAPTER 10: MISUSE OF AUTHORITY

CHAPTER 11: EXCLUSION

CHAPTER 12: CELEBRATING INCLUSION

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

LESSON PLANS

DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to all children who have been harmed in any of the ways discussed in this book, including those adults who still might bear the scars caused by others in their own childhoods.

PREFACE

This book is about teaching children how to think and act fairly hence, its title.

It is not about Rudolph or about Santa Claus.The story of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is simply a medium through which this author hopes to teach children to think and act fairly. The optimist in me expects that this book will prove to be a useful teaching tool that encourages children to discuss and debate what is fair or not fair in this story. It is hoped that this book will help win over the hearts and minds of children so that they will never desire to bully or mock others.

Why did I write How to Teach Children to Think and Act Fairly? I am a professor at the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University. I teach college students who are preparing to become Special Education teachers. For several semesters I showed my students the video of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and asked them to jot down any positive and negative concepts they perceived in the video and to hand them in anonymously. These students said that the basic message of the

Reviews for How to Teach Children to Think and Act Fairly

[Alex Vaillancourt · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

While I do agree the Professor did make some fine points regarding rejection (policy 1), conformity (policy 2), mocking (policy 5), unintended consequences (policy 8), misuse of authority (policy 9), and exclusion (policy 10), I do have some mixed feelings about the subjects of sexism (policy 3), favoritism (policy 4), extraordinary behavior (policy 6), and hypocritical behavior (policy 7).

Before I share these feelings, let me begin by saying that I greatly respect the Professor and his work in special education, and that he was entitled to teaching his students the way he did and providing the curricular material he felt would best engage them in preparing for becoming special ed professors or teachers themselves.

Now first off, let me discuss my thoughts on policies 3, 4, 6, and 7. First, about sexism: I do agree it was the right thing for Clarice and Rudolph's mother to do to join the search party to look for Rudolph, even after Donner told the latter, "This is man's work." And yes, I think Rudolph's mother should have had some say in choosing the name for her and Donner's son, and that women are stronger than men. But remember, this special was made back in the 1960s, when men doing more than women was still an issue in this country, before civil rights and women's lib came along and made things more fair, and men and women were finally entitled to equal work and pay.

Favoritism: This is a little tricky, except that I think this assessment by the student goes just a little too deep. Favoritism is, like sexism, still very problematic in business, education, and mostly parenting, but this is analysis is just a bit much. All a kid needs to do is raise his or her hand rather than be selected at random.

Extraordinary behavior: There is actually a point to this one; to call Rudolph and his nose helping Santa through the storm extraordinary is a bit of an overstatement. For the former to be called a hero is fine, but that was just pure coincidence. He was simply helping Santa and the other reindeer out; after persevering through all the other odds he faced, he was able to persevere through the storm to save the Misfit Toys as well, and succeeded!

And finally, hypocritical behavior: I think this one goes a little too far. Even as a kid, I've never seen Santa and Donner following any hypocritical “agenda". Grownups sometimes say or do things that they later regret, and Santa and Donner have since seen the errors of their ways, and all was forgiven in the end. No big deal.

Also, staying on the subject of hypocrisy, when the examples of sexism in the special are discussed in the lesson plans at the end of the book, one question explains whether or not it was alright for Rudolph’s mother and Clarice to go out and search for Rudolph without Donner’s permission. The obvious answer by some would’ve been a simple “no”, but this is a bit of flip-flop. If the context of the decade the special aired in were to be taken into account, the answer by others would’ve been a resounding “yes!”

Now for a footnote about a logical flaw perpetuated in both extraordinary and hypocritical behavior: Santa never had any prior intentions of using Rudolph's nose as a beacon in the beginning, therefore, how could he have known something like that beforehand? How could he have found out before apologizing to Rudolph and Hermey? That's not how minds work. They clearly apologized to them before such an idea struck him, not the other way around. That's how the special, not to mentioned the original book and song, was written.

To conclude, some of the negative signs the Professor and his students pointed out are valid, but the rest fall a little short of how the story really works. Robert May, Johnny Marks, and Romeo Muller with Rankin/Bass never made it that way. While I do see its added value as a teaching tool for kids, it's still a timeless classic that resonates positively with us today, and while their are parallels drawn between the story and real-life situations, there is also a difference between fantasy and reality. We just have to be there to explain it to our kids. Furthermore, you don't have to have policies to make society better, just good ideas and support.

In a nutshell, Rudolph is just a cartoon, and we all have other better things we can do with the time on our hands than just looking for the bad in things and taking them at face value.

As someone who knows the real story, I would recommend to parents "T.E.A.M. Rudolph and the Reindeer Games", endorsed by PACER by the way, to parents as something with the same level of accuracy, but a bit more solid and true to the original story for use as a holiday-themed teaching tool for kids.