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Using A Butterfly
Analogy to Explain the Hierarchy
From a post at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DisciplineWithoutStress
I began by reminding the students of their
study in third grade of the life cycle of
a butterfly. They recalled that there
are four stages of development: egg,
caterpillar, pupa, and butterfly. We talked
about how all butterflies are in some stage
of this process but have no control over
their movement through the process.
We then moved on to comparing the
butterfly's life cycle to that of humans.
We decided that humans go through four basic
stages as well. We called them: baby/infant,
child/youth, adolescence/teen, and
adult/grown-up. We agreed that humans,
like the butterfly, have little control
over stages of physical development.
Then we began to look at the four stages
of social development in which one human
and/or an entire society could operate. We
talked about what a human and a society in
anarchy would look like and how such
a situation was so hopeless. Then we talked
about what would likely occur to remedy the
problems of an anarchy-based society. We
decided that someone would rise up and
take control of the situation (thereby
becoming a boss) and that this may or
may not be a good thing. We looked at
countries around the world where we
thought this might have happened.
Next we moved on to looking at the level of
control or power in a group of friends. We
decided that a group of friends works
together to share control based on what they
agree is their mission and that oftentimes
this mission and the group control is not
even discussed; it is more or less just
understood among the group members. From
here a discussion of blind conformity
developed and how this type of cooperation
is not necessarily good. We went on to look
at how being considerate of others and
cooperating for the right reasons resulted
in a democratic society like the United
States.
We decided that doing what is right
because we know it is the best thing to do
is a much higher level of development
than doing what is right as a result of
outside influence. Finally, we talked
about how we had more control over our
stage of social development than we did
over our stage of physical development. The
thought of being in control over something
about themselves heightened their
interest in the
Raise Responsibility System.
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