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Dr. Lawrence Kohlberg 's ' Bye, ' Children And Their Attitudes Essay

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In Michael Stewart’s novel Bye Bye Birdie, children and their attitudes play a significant role from disobedience and protective parents, to teenage love and jealousy. Some parents in the little town of Sweet Apple, Ohio attributed children’s attitudes to “Elvis-stereotyped” Conrad Birdie; however, others believed it was their age. Psychologist, Lawrence Kohlberg, described many moral stages each and every person goes through during his or her life. I know two children who illustrate Kohlberg 's stages of Moral Development very well. Karim is an eight year old boy to whom I taught swim lessons, and he is currently in the preconventional stage. Sam is my 12 year old brother and living in the conventional stage of Kohlberg’s Moral Stages. As one of the most difficult children I have ever taught lessons to, Karim struggled with following directions, respecting his teachers, and working hard. He was given to me to work with for two reasons, so I could fix his stroke and because he refused to obey authority. While his previous instructor is my friend, he lacked the gumption to punish his students when they were disobedient, like Karim. Despite sitting around the pool 30 minutes before his lesson, Karim was always late. Once in the water every excuse in the book came out: goggles filled up with water, legs and arms were tired, he needed to go the restroom, he did not understand what I was saying, or he just had no desire to perform to the best of his abilities. Many frustrations

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