Values

For Wednesday's class, Heather had us play a game. She set up a situation and we had to position ourselves along a line of strongly agree to strongly disagree. Her situations were corporal punishment for children; giving money to homeless people; and giving people jobs based on their merit, skills or talents versus just because they knew the right people. It was a really interesting activity and helped me realize what some of my own values are, but also the values of Emily and Holly and why they feel how they feel. I also realized a lot of my values come directly from my parents and the way that I was brought up. Does that mean that they are really my values, or is that just the only way I've ever been shown to think or feel? As a young, developing adult...how do I figure out what my values are? What kinds of things affect how people develop values? I can see that a lot of it comes from the different situations we are exposed to. It was great to hear what everyone thought - Malcolm, Heather, and Holly usually had a different angle and I could totally understand their points and why they felt how they did. That's the problem - for me, it is easy to see why I value something a certain way, but I can also totally understand why someone feels differently, at least with all of the things that we discussed. And I haven't really been exposed to many different situations. My only example of corporal punishment comes from my dad giving us spanks when we were little, when he only did it if we were really being snots, and then was completely loving afterward and explained why our behavior was inappropriate. My value/opinion on that might be completely different if I had seen or been subject to severe corporal punishment in school....

So I was thinking about why Heather had us do this, and how it pertains to South Africa, and how my experiences there might help me in shaping and developing my values. With the homelessness question, I know we are going to be exposed to a lot more of it than we currently see here in Provo, Utah. A point that Heather brought up was human trafficking, and how a little kid begging might actually be working for some bigger group and might not benefit from money or food at all - something that would not even cross my mind here in Utah. I am really interested to see how being in a culture totally different from the one I am used to is going to change my values and the way I view the world.