Week 1 Reflection

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 think for high schools/educators to ignore any aspect of a student's identity formation would be negligent. Negative identity formation is also important for an adolescent's development, and the role high schools should take is that of a guide that allows a student to make mistakes (to a certain degree) but encourages the student to learn from them. All adolescent's go through some form of a rebellion phase, and ignoring that or trying to crush it out of them seems folly to me. We all know that negligent role models aren't role models at all, and oftentimes overbearing authorities (parents or teachers) can lead to adolescents that embrace negative identity formation perhaps more than they should. That being said, students should never be allowed to "rule the roost" but some degree of freedom of choice should be allowed for them to make mistakes and learn from them. Learning to fail, and admit failure, I believe to be a critical aspect of the growing up process. That's why once you get to a certain age you don't earn participation trophies in athletics anymore. 

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