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1 jiayi EHGL 1213 Professor Paugh Jiayi zhang Relating the poem to an topic The poem ethics "Ethics"

composed by Linda Pastan indicates a process of contemplating about the relates her teachers question in each fall that if there were a fire in a museum, should we save the precious painting or an old woman who with little time left. In the her childhood, Linda did not consider it too much. When she grew into an adult and imaged imagined her grandma was the old woman, she answered that to let the old woman determine by herself. Then, when Linda became an old woman, she finally she got the answer that nobody can save this, [no comma] because the autumn, painting and the old woman have been are the one same. As far as I am concerned, the main subject of the poem is to reveal that after people experience a lot during the different stages in ones life their lives, they can think out and form the real ethics or values, and an individuals values can be changing change with more and more life experience. which This is relevant to our task to argue whether children are expected to learn moral, ethics and value. I assert that public school should not teach children morals, ethics or values in at such a young age. Primarily, children are not supposed to be taught the morals, ethics or values because they are too young to accept some complex ethics or values. Without enough practical experience in their childhood, some complicated values and ethics are difficult for children to understand. Take myself as an example; as

2 when I was pretty young, my teachers would always tell us that we should respect our parents. At that time, I remained confused about the word respect. In other words, I knew that I should respect our my parents; however, how to put the moral into practice really confused me when I was just in primary school. As growing up I have grown up, I have been become gradually aware of the detail of how to show respect our to my parents. For example, when parents are talking about something serious in the bedroom, I should respect their privacy, rather than open their bedroom door rudely to disturb them. Therefore, It it is irrational that teachers just instill in children those boring or some complicated morals, ethics and values in their at a young age, [no comma] because probably those stuffs for younger children are just the same as those rote knowledge in their textbooks. they They can merely know and remember the superficial meaning of the word rather than the feasible behaviors. With growing of age and accumulating of life experience, children can realize and then practice them. Moreover, children will not care more about and consider those morals, ethics and values taught in class, [no comma] because they think it has been is out of the reach of beyond their ability to understanding; hence, it is not as effective as teachers think. In the poem, Pastan states, Restless on hard chairs /caring little for pictures or old age /wed opt one year for life, the next for art /and always halfheartedly... ( Linda Pastan 6-9). The response of children when they upon hearing their teachers question demonstrates that children are too innocent and young to answer the complex ethics problem, so sometimes they only show their reaction of being careless react carelessly. Furthermore, with their increasing life

3 jiayi experience, probably growing into an adult, they will care more about the question of moral, ethics and values and prefer considering the important subjects in their life instead of half-hearted responses. One year later Linda felt herself clever, she and replied Why not let the woman decide herself? (Pastan 14). As Upon growing older, she became the old woman and really think in though from the her position of the old woman, and she found that it is hard to save the whole, since the cold autumn, the old lady, and the great painting has been the are one. It is a the same question, but from the careless of thinking in of the childhood to obtaining a profound answer, which results from the an increasingly improved understanding ability. To sum up, I hold the viewpoint that public school should not instill morals, ethics and values to children in at such a young age, since they may think those are not understandable and will not care more about them. However, with the growing of their age, they can accumulate their life experience to gain and think out the real meaning of morals and form accurate values. Recalling our memory, when you were pretty young and carefree, were you very willing to accept and consider those unattainable complicated morals, ethics and values?

Works cited Missy James and Alan P. Merickel. Reading Literature and Writing Argument. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2008. Print

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