Originally posted by MadDog49er:
Why do criminals declare their innocence even after all the evidence clearly shows they are guilty? Because they do not sense what they are doing is wrong. The only feelings of sadness or remorse is that they were caught. This is the mindset of career criminals, habitual criminals, people who have a lack of moral development.
The vast majority of students I have worked with do not have this problem. However, there have certainly been numerous children who are much like Cam. They break laws, defy authority, cheat and steal whenever they can, because they do not have good moral judgment. Can this change over time? It is possible. However, some people will never emerge to behave well when no one is looking, take the high road morally, do things in society for others with no selfish interest.
Should we be surprised Cam has behaved this way, since his father was illegally trying to pawn him off to the highest bidder.
I don't know you or your background. You don't know me or mine. Let's leave it that way because I don't want to know what kind of "work" you did with these kids.
There are two things that I have a problem with about your point of view.
1) I don't understand all of the details of Cam Newton's "problems". I haven't bothered to spend the time researching them because it is pointless. You can't know what is truly going on if you are getting your information from anywhere other than first hand. The fact that you condemn a kid based on news clippings is ignorant, fatalistic, and absurd.
It is just as likely (probably more likely) that everything he says is true and he fits in with the "vast majority of students I have worked with do not have this problem." Anything else is an assumption on your part based on poor sources (sensationalist media) that got many of the facts wrong from the start, as I understand it.
2) Your narrow minded point of view on the nature of humanity tells me that you might want to educate yourself on the topic of criminal recidivism. There are far more reasons for a person to repeat immoral or criminal activities than "a lack of moral development".
Specifically in this instance, kids at Cam Newton's age haven't even finished restructuring their adolescent brains. They don't even have the capacity for complete "moral development". Every person's brain restructures at a different rate from around the ages of 14 to 25. Cam Newton's brain is still going through some major changes that effect his behavior and are not an indictment on his final completed personality. I have no idea how educated you are, so I'll just point out that this is not the same thing as puberty. If you want to know more, Google it. I'm not going to teach you about adolescent neuroscience. Just keep in mind that there is a reason we don't give kids the full rights that adults have until they are 21.
The point is, kids do stupid s**t because they're kids. Not because they're "career criminals" with a "lack of moral development". They don't get those labels until they are actually fully developed mature adults with defined personalities.
Lastly, Cam Newton is an individual. Everyone is different and deals with things differently. You really just have no idea who he is. Stop acting like you do.