Can dignity and respect for the elderly as fellow human beings be taught?
It can be taught and has been taught by many cultures over the course of human history. It cannot be taught in text books or classes. It is taught because that is an integeral part of the society they live in for the course of their lives, this is where attitudes are formed. Children do what they see and if elders are cared for and revered, they will grow up to care for and revere elders. When they see that elders are scorned and not cared for or about, this is the attitude they bring with them to adulthood. When they become seniors themselves they will have learned by experience the error of their ways but it will be too late for them and for the ones that follow their wrongheaded example.
I learned to respect senior citizens, at first i got angry at anyone who talked down to me. My grandfather taught me different and i learned after a while, you should see how hard some seniors can hit, i always underestimated them as a child but my grandfather was a brute who worked his whole life and was dropped off by a drunk father when he was around 6 years old, he lived on trains and found jobs and made himself smart with no schooling. I have a few of his drawings and he made up his own math with weird symbols but it worked out perfectly when he made his chars, wells and many other wooden things. When he hit me i totally deserved it, i said something really mean and nasty that got him personally, he only hit me one time but it was really hard and made me fly a little, when i was a teenager. He worked himself to his grave and would not except diabetes as a way to get lazy, even after all the insulin shots with the needle he had to take. He was a viking he said, and if you said no y
I was taught so I don’t see why others could not be taught. However, my teaching was in a home setting. I think that may carry more weight. I was taught verbally & also by example of how my parents treated my grandparents (their parents). I was taught, “This is how we behave. This is who we are. This is how we treat elderly family.” And I just assumed that carried over into other elderly people & was shown I was right to think that as reinforced by my parents. PLUS I was also taught & studied on my own about other cultures, past & present, that honor their elderly. So I think a full, comprehensive approach is best. But, something is better than nothing if a child was not taught this foundation of honor at home.
