Building Character and Culture

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If we are ever to solve the problems of society we must understand how humans function as both the creators and creatures of an evolving culture. Only by viewing socialization as the ongoing product of social interaction in the context of a hierarchy of dynamic, self-organizing, feedback systems will we begin to build the scientifically reliable knowledge that can provide us with the conceptual tools necessary to ensure our survival and the health of our ecology. Pat Duffy Hutcheon stresses the importance of culture in human development, along with our collective responsibility for the direction in which that culture evolves. From the perspective of an evolutionary-systems model, she explains the ongoing interaction between nature and nurture, while identifying the devastating consequences of allowing nurture to occur in the absence of sound scientific analysis and proactive intervention, guided by universally applicable values and reliable knowledge. Hutcheon proceeds from an exploration of humans as creators and creatures of culture to a consideration of the key role of agents of socialization in cognitive development and character formation. Culture is presented as a hierarchy of nesting systems feeding into the socialization process from birth to deathbeginning with the subcultures of the family, school, and peer group which are, in turn, influenced by their relationship to larger, enveloping systems. The most worrisome forms of the latter are identified as the culture of violencethat terrifying product of our modern electronic media; the destructive mirror images of the cultures of affluence and poverty; the incompatible cultures of pluralism and tribalism; and the culture of fantasy, with its seductive appeal of simplistic certainties in response to the threat of wholesale social breakdown. Hutcheon's message is far from pessimistic, however, in that the analyses of current problems are clearly seen to point the way to practical solutions.

Reviews

Hutcheon is particularly adept at showing the multiple sides of complex phenomena....Some readers might feel irritated by her directness and quick remedies, but the very frankness or her analysis bids us to address these issues head on....No one, administrator, teacher, student or citizen can afford to be apathetic in the face of this challenge. Each should find this volume most informative and provocative.-Building Character and Culture
The most outstanding aspects of the author's work are its clarity and its courage, together with an astonishing amount of knowledge and insight into the development of character, both in young children from the first day onward, and throughout a person's entire lifetime.-Humankind Advancing, Oct 99
This book is important and very timely....[T]his book offers social understanding and good advice to its readers, especially parents and their children.-Integrative Physiological and Behavioral Science
This is another important work by sociologist educator Hutcheon....Hutcheon has clearly presented the problem of building character and culture. It is up to Humanists and Skeptics to help fellow concerned citizens to work out ways to restore and amend our socialising practices so as to produce the desired character and culture.-Australian Humanist
Thoughtful readers will agree that this book belongs in the hands of every parent, of every teacher, and of everyone concerned with the future of civilization.-Humankind Advancing, Oct 99
"This book is important and very timely....This book offers social understanding and good advice to its readers, especially parents and their children."-Integrative Physiological and Behavioral Science
"The most outstanding aspects of the author's work are its clarity and its courage, together with an astonishing amount of knowledge and insight into the development of character, both in young children from the first day onward, and throughout a person's entire lifetime."-Humankind Advancing, Oct 99
"This book is important and very timely....[T]his book offers social understanding and good advice to its readers, especially parents and their children."-Integrative Physiological and Behavioral Science
"This is another important work by sociologist educator Hutcheon....Hutcheon has clearly presented the problem of building character and culture. It is up to Humanists and Skeptics to help fellow concerned citizens to work out ways to restore and amend our socialising practices so as to produce the desired character and culture."-Australian Humanist
"Thoughtful readers will agree that this book belongs in the hands of every parent, of every teacher, and of everyone concerned with the future of civilization."-Humankind Advancing, Oct 99
"Hutcheon is particularly adept at showing the multiple sides of complex phenomena....Some readers might feel irritated by her directness and quick remedies, but the very frankness or her analysis bids us to address these issues head on....No one, administrator, teacher, student or citizen can afford to be apathetic in the face of this challenge. Each should find this volume most informative and provocative."-Building Character and Culture

Author Bio

PAT DUFFY HUTCHEON is a writer, sociologist, and educator with broad experience both in teaching at all levels of the public school and university system, and in policy-oriented research. Now retired, she taught courses in the sociology of education and early-childhood education at the University of Regina and the University of British Columbia, as well as serving as a research advisor to the Health Promotion Branch of the Canadian Department of Health and Welfare and as a director of the Vanier Institute of the Family. Among her earlier publications are A Sociology of Canadian Education and Leaving the Cave: Evolutionary Naturalism in Social-Scientific Thought.