Psychologist Travis Langley asked this question: "Why write about heroes and villains in days when they seem hard to tell apart?" Heroes are those who inspire us while villains are those who strike fear in us. It seems simple enough for children to recognize superheroes and the villains they fight. Perhaps, as we grow older our thinking becomes more complex that we stop seeing morality in black and white but in different shades of gray. About three years ago,
Yale researchers Arber Tasimi and Karen Wynn showed that "children and even infants, although motivated by material rewards, are nonetheless willing to incur costs to avoid “doing business” with a wrongdoer".
This morning, I saw several photographs posted and shared by a teacher and children books' author, Genaro Ruiz Gojo Cruz. One picture that really drew my attention is shown below:
The photograph came with this caption from Cruz, "Nang makita ko ang mga batang ito na nagtatakbuhan patungo sa kubol kung saan ako magkukuwento, nawala na lahat ng pagod ko." (When I saw these children who were running toward the hut where I was scheduled to do story-telling, I suddenly became no longer tired) The children truly show their eagerness to be in this book-reading session as they are willing to carry chairs to a makeshift auditorium.
The children knew. They were in for a treat. It was a day to meet an author of books for young minds.
Children are naturally attracted to good people. This has been illustrated by researchers at the Yale University's Infant Cognition Center. It is worth noting that although infants would rather deal with do-gooders, there is a limit: "The larger the amount, the more willing subjects were to deal with a wrongdoer".
So I happened to see another photo this morning. This time, it was an inauguration of a two-storey four classroom elementary school.
I really did not want to look at a photograph of politicians taking credit for building a school from government funds. So I simply scrolled up, back to Cruz's photos and chose to look instead at his inspiring photographs:
And especially this one:
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