What if… you do not know what you really believe?

I hate the Japanese!

I stood in stunned silence as the two South Korean 10-year-old students blurted out this phrase in unison to a casual comment I made in their ESL class about Japan. I wasn’t going to get sidetracked and went on with the lesson. After the lesson I just quietly pulled them aside and asked them why?
They both went on to say something about their parents and their grandparents. I’m not here to address the impact of atrocities that happened before, during and after World War II. But I was rather dumbfounded that in late 2003, these 10-year-olds, who had no experience with any Japanese in 2003, had such a vehement belief against an entire race.

Let us look at a few less contentious situations:

Do you think the average teacher is aware of their underlying thoughts or beliefs of how people learn as they enter the classroom each day?

Do you think the average teen is aware of the underlying thoughts or beliefs they copy from their parents as they enter adulthood?

Do you think the average app user is aware of the underline thoughts or beliefs of the developer who created the app?