Session 3: Forgiveness, Children and Education

Session 3: Forgiveness, Children and Education
Chair: Margaret Smith
Exploring Origins of Forgiveness in Children: An Analogue Experimental Study
Tomoko Yamaguchi
School of Psychology, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand

We explored children’s willingness to forgive someone who has treated them unfairly or otherwise may have hurt their feelings. A total of 82 children between the ages of 8 and 11 in New Zealand primary (elementary) schools were individually assessed in a scenario-based interview session. Fifty three parents of these children completed a questionnaire about their approach to children’s common misbehaviours and the degree to which they encouraged forgiveness in their children. Children judged the degree of fairness or unfairness and reported associated feelings after listening to a scenario describing an interaction between a child and a mother or an interaction between a child and a friend. They further responded to three imaginary situations designed to assess their willingness to grant forgiveness as opposed to expressing feelings of hostility. The findings confirmed that children were generally willing to grant forgiveness to a mother even though she was unfair, but less so to a friend. Their tendency to forgive was not related to self-reported aspects of their parents’ disciplinary style, including encouragement of forgiveness and tolerance. However, examination of children’s verbatim responses and their expressed understanding of the meaning of forgiveness revealed the complex nature of the relationship between parent and child concerning tolerance for mistakes.

Download Draft Conference Paper –

In this paper it is argued that forgiveness, as a moral quality, can be enhanced by fostering moral sensitivity through exercising the aesthetic perception and attitude. I will maintain that observing and producing art works can train students in different qualities, such as imagination, tolerance, genuineness, taking various nonstereotypic perspectives, dealing with inconsistencies and ambiguity, and experiencing and understanding the concept of completeness and universalizablility. It is shown that these qualities are directly related to flexibility, empathy, sympathy and compassion, which are prerequisites for being able to take the role of the generalized other, and to take the moral point of view of recognizing the other’s inherent worth. Virtues like mercy, forgiveness, and altruism may flow from these qualities. Relating to Dewey, I claim that the aesthetic perception is intrinsically moral: the attributions that are implied in this position are the same as in the moral attitude. I will comment this view by acknowledging that being aesthetically disposed does not necessarily lead to morally responsible behavior or to compassion and forgiveness.
Attention will be paid to the definition of forgiveness and different key aspects in the forgiveness process that are important in art education. My idea of developing aesthetic perception for moral education will be considered as complementary to moral reasoning as in Kohlberg’s Just Community approach.
To forgive requires insight in the offender’s circumstances, dispositions and worth as well as insight in one’s own feelings, possibilities and fallibility. Art and the development of the aesthetic experience can lead to knowledge of the self, the other and the world; to maturation of morality by identification with the human condition.