Skinner was a master of behaviorist psychology who pioneered operational behaviorist psychology and is known as the "father of procedural teaching" and the "father of teaching machines". Many of the educational techniques used in contemporary education systems are, in the final analysis, based on Skinner's operationalist psychology.
Skinner incorporated his life's work into Walden II, in which he described the construction of a utopian community called Walden II through behaviorism. And I've been reading his book lately because I'm studying behaviorist psychology.
I admire Skinner's greatness and believe in behaviorist psychology, and my column "Using Feedback to Cultivate Children's Interest in Learning" is fundamentally based on behaviorist psychology.
That's why I wanted to learn how Skinner's utopian society educates children with behaviorism, so I've been studying Walden II in recent days.
Of course, Skinner also introduced some methods in the book, such as eliminating children's jealousy by controlling the strength of the stimulus, cultivating their bravery, etc., which made me gain something after reading it.
But I have to say that Skinner is a little too paranoid, too much of a belief in the control of behavior by the external environment, and ignores the individual's internal psychological reactions.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="5" > reason why Walden Lake II is unlikely to succeed</h1>
There are many problems in the book, and I will focus on two points
1. A vain attempt to eliminate jealousy
In the book, the Walden Second Community attempts to eliminate jealousy through a series of operations, because jealousy leads to psychological imbalance and therefore the community cannot remain stable. Although there are some methods vaguely revealed in the book, I did not understand how Skinner wanted to operate.
But I would say that it is impossible to eliminate jealousy, because it is based on man's selfish instincts.
It is true that people have the instinct to adapt to their environment, which is also the basis of behaviorist psychology, and in order to better adapt to the environment, we humans have evolved selfish instincts.
Under the trend of selfish instinct, we can fight for greater benefits for ourselves, and of course, we can better ensure our survival.
It is also under the selfish instinct that in order to better adapt to the environment, we have the instinct to pursue excellence, always want to be better than others, because only in this way can we win more resources and ensure survival.
It is precisely for this reason that we are bound to compete with each other, and we must have jealousy, because this is the basis for the survival and reproduction of this creature.
So it's impossible to live in complete friendliness and not care about the quality of the job or the level of status. Therefore, utopia can only be called utopia, and it cannot become a reality.
2. A vain attempt to eliminate human differences
In "Walden II", all children are placed in a kindergarten-like place for centralized management, and the resources enjoyed by children are the same, with the purpose of cultivating children who are as small as possible, so that they can be easily cultivated. For example, if you want to raise children without jealousy, if the children are very different, it is necessary to set up a specific way for each child, which is obviously too difficult.
But I would like to say that people's perception of the objective environment is full of subjectivity. Even if it is set up fairly, in the face of the same environment, different people will have different views and will not feel fair.
Take the child with two children, for example, parents buy the same thing for both children in order to be fair, but then the child feels fair? No, the old assembly feels that he is big, he should have more, and the second will feel that he is small, and the boss should let him. You see, no matter how it is divided, as long as one party interprets it from a different angle, it will not feel fair. Fairness can only be relative, it cannot be absolute.
Therefore, even if the environment created in "Walden II" is better, because the children are subjectively different, their cognition of the environment will not be the same, of course, it is impossible to unify.
It can only be said that in a certain aspect, their commonality will be more. For example, if they are in an English-speaking environment, they all speak English. But there are not many other commonalities, because it is impossible to set up an environment for each feature anyway. Moreover, many times, different characteristics are antagonistic to each other. This is also doomed, people are doomed not to eliminate human differences.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="13" > summary</h1>
In short, there are too many loopholes in this book to be achieved.
Of course, some of the methods in the book can still be used as references. For example, although we cannot completely eliminate human differences, in a single aspect, we can eliminate differences as much as possible through special settings. For example, in the Chinese environment, we can only learn to speak Chinese. This is what environmental control means.