Can I tell you how excited I am for the coming school year?? I'M SO EXCITED! I am excited to learn theories and ideas from great minds. I'm really excited to shoot them down! Mua ha ha! Just kidding. But really, I am excited for all the great things I will learn and most likely share in this venue.
In my coming Adolescent Learning and Development class we have a graduate version of the good ole book report project to do. As I was reading through the list of possible books and their summaries, I realized a major principle of adolescent development. This principle is soooo obvious to the rest of the world: adolescence is the time of developing identity. DUH! Right? From an educational psychologist perspective, that's rocket science. But the real fun comes into play when thinking about what true identity is and what influences our identity. One major component in my opinion in gender. Another resounding DUH, right? But I must point out that the world we live in (at least part of it) is trying to move toward a world without gender (They obviously didn't do their Biology homework). News flash - gender is part of our identity. To take away gender or to dilute, convolute, or pollute the associated development wreaks havoc on adolescence. English translation: adolescent development + messed up ideas on gender = BAD IDEA. Messed up growing plant = messed up grown plant. Ta da! Scary rocket science.
So here's the bottom line. Identity is what it's going to be about this semester in this class. Identity is what it's all about in adolescence, and those who can teach and inspire youth (and adults for that matter) to find true individual identity -- not in conjunction or retaliation to trends or fads of society -- have a gift to share.
No comments:
Post a Comment