A

Another Look at Conscience 149

Let us look now at the concept of generality. How can this be taught to
a child? As before, I suggest that words, by themselves, will have little
impact. It is useless for a parent to reason with his child. This is because
the childish mind is incapable of comparing situations and then drawing
out general principles. Instead, childish thinking is determined by
individual Mercy experiences. They define his 'truth.' If, for instance,
Johnny is fighting with his sister, it does not make sense for his parents to
attempt to discuss friendship with him. Johnny‟s current understanding of
friendship is being defined by the emotional Mercy experience of pulling
his sister‟s hair. Unless that specific incident is addressed, Johnny‟s
mindset will not change.
The childish mind may not be able to understand generality, but I
suggest that the childish body is capable of building this concept. When I
use my physical body to cooperate with the actions of another person, I am
doing something which is bigger than me, something which is more
general than the specific experiences of my physical body. It is this
combination of individuality and cooperation which is the essence of
generality.A

The mind of the child is incapable of understanding time or generality.

 Intelligent discipline can teach his body about time.

 Family and friends can teach his body about generality.

In practical terms, a child will learn the idea of generality if he has to
cooperate physically with others who are visibly different from him. Why
visibly different? Because the goal is to use the child‟s body to teach
generality to the child‟s mind. Therefore, the body must speak to the mind
in terms which the mind can understand. Because childish thinking is
defined by Mercy events, mental programming must center around Mercy
experiences—which are primarily visual.
What I am referring to is multiculturalism. A child may have playmates
with different skin colors, or friends who have physical disabilities. The
family may have neighbors who come from different cultures, or the
family may travel to other countries. Or, in the most obvious form, a child
may live with people of different ages. Situations such as these are
excellent opportunities for teaching generality to a child.B

A What we are describing is Teacher thought, which we will discuss later

on. Teacher thinking builds general understanding by looking for order
within complexity.
B My brother is perhaps the first person ever to have raised a set of children

who knew fully, from infancy, about cognitive styles. Every playmate,
each adult encountered by the family was usually identified easily and