Essay On Ignoring Negative Actions

In many cases, it is clear that the best way to teach is to encourage positive actions through praise. However, ignoring negative actions will not make the decision and its consequences disappear. This inaction makes it seem as though making the bad choice will not harm you; the good choice can bring benefit but the bad thing has no further consequences. It will also set precedent for future decisions, since others may feel that if one person was able to get away with making a bad decision, they can do the same. Finally, not assigning consequences for negative actions to the right person will make it worse for the common pool, since the rest of the group will suffer for one person’s decision. The first example of how ignoring negative actions can have unforeseen consequences is in early education. In Kindergarten, children are taught to share their toys, and are often rewarded for choosing to do so. However, if teachers decided to only reward children for sharing and not discourage children from being selfish, those kids may end up believing that selfish behavior is fair. They may see selfishness as a choice to make, rather than believing it to be a bad behavioral trait. In the current system that punishes bad behavior, children are shown that selfish people face negative

Overfishing is a common example of the phenomena of tragedy of the commons. If one person overfishes, they ruin the fishing for the whole group of fishermen; all the fishermen are punished for that one person’s choice. It isn’t fair for the whole group. On the other hand, if one person avoids overfishing, they may receive some positive gain, but still may lose out if another person still overfishes. The whole group ends up dealing with the consequences of a decision on person made. In a just world, the person who made that decision would be the only one dealing with the lack of