48 Teaching Minds
others and hearing their stories but we also learn from our own experi- ence as we construct our own stories. We can learn about life experi- ences through reading and movies as well. We like stories in all these forms precisely because they focus on real-life issues. The cognitive task here is story creation, comparison, indexing, and modification. Most conversation depends on story exchange. The more emotional a story is, the more likely it is to be remembered.
4. Evaluation: Improving our ability to determine the value of something on many different dimensions
There are no rights and wrongs in what we like. But there is gen- eral agreement about what makes a work of art great. The factors to be considered are not necessarily conscious, although for experts they typically are. In these more subjective and subconscious areas of life, it is more a matter of trying to understand what feels right than under- standing why it feels right. There is a difference between being some- one who can make an artistic judgment and being an art expert. One might learn to notice things that one had failed to notice, if someone takes the time to point them out. Learning to make artistic judgments is about learning to notice, to describe, and to appreciate. One’s con- cept of beauty changes when one’s focus changes. Practice is a key idea here as is the assembling of a case base to use as a comparison set. Nevertheless, the comparison set is not usually conscious. One can like something because it is pleasing without realizing (or caring about) why it is pleasing.
When we make a value judgment, we don’t necessarily know the values we have and we haven’t necessarily learned them consciously. We should value human life over property but whether we do or not we will find out only if the situation arises. It is tempting to try to teach values but this actually is done so early in life and in so many subtle ways that anybody over the age of 10 is unlikely to be much affected by what people say to them about what they should value and what they shouldn’t. Perhaps husbands should value helping their wives over watching football but that doesn’t mean they will. In important areas of life, on the job and in child raising, for example, one’s values come into play. If parents believe they shouldn't correct a child when he makes a mistake in speaking, they soon will find that they have
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