Week 1 - Blog Reflection

 Prompt - What role should high schools have, or should they take a role, in adolescents struggles with negative identity formation (rebellion)? Or should they only concentrate on positive identity formation?

 I believe that schools already have a role in our current society when it comes to the identity formation of our youth. I’m not sure they should have as large of a role as they do but, we have pushed that on to them. I feel as though they usually focus on the negative aspects of identity and we really should focus on both in a balanced manner since they are both needed to become successful. If high schools only focus on the positive then I feel as though much guilt and shame would come from this fantasy expectation. If we only focus on the negative then I think there will be this unfair pressure causing further rebellion. Everything is balance and no part of someone’s identity should be ignored. I believe that the education system should take many steps to ensure the struggles and highlights of adolescents are dealt with using equal force. I think high school is the time where many decisions can be vital to a student long term. Maybe an unfair amount of decisions will be suddenly placed on them and that can be more stressful if they don’t have support. I think what we should do is encourage the positive side of identity especially since you don’t know what they may or may not be dealing with at home. We should do this by having better continuing education for instructors regarding things like mental health. I also think we have made strides when adding mental health workers to schools but, we need to do more. From what I know we do have a team of counselors, social workers, and psychologists but, I think we ask too much of them. They usually travel around instead of having permanent offices and could be responsible for hundreds of kids at one time. This doesn’t really give them the ability to know their kids and really do all they can for them. Schools are large enough as is but, I think we really need to do better to make these jobs permanent in every school and maybe have more than 1 of each to ensure that school has what they need. Nowadays it seems they move towards academic concerns and not the well-being of the child which should be of the utmost importance. I think we have to dive deep in to what we are teaching and why as well and how it makes all students feel. I think Erikson had something when he discussed having a safe space for learning. At this age I think we have to really lean in and embrace differences but, while giving them a safe space to do so. I think digging in to why they do them may also lead them down a healthy path of rebellion. It is okay to not always be happy and we need to give them ways to believe this and know how to overcome. We can’t let this go too far though. You can impact safety, physical, and mental health. It can become difficult to label what freedoms of rebellion we can and cannot give. I think common sense would normally be enough but, I can see this being a point of contention. I think we can use these events to grow and learn from and that is a huge part of growing up and coming into our own identity.

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