Erikson at Arcadia

I have been observing a class of 8th graders at Arcadia, so my students fall into the “identity vs. role confusion” stage of Erikson’s theory. I see attempts at identity definition present in a lot of the classroom activities – last week, for instance, I watched a mixed group of 6th and 8th graders play a game of ultimate frisbee and it was interesting to note the differences between the two groups. While the younger students ran around playing the game – not seeming to care much about how they were portraying themselves – the eighth graders seemed to be using the format of the game to try on and act out different identities. One older girl refused to play at all, avoiding the disc when it came near and making joking comments about it to another boy in the class. Several of the boys used the game to show off – becoming overly aggressive and performative in the way they scored points. While this is a very specific example, it felt like a good representation of how students work through questions of identity and gender during the 8th grade+ years.

Even though these students are all most likely in the “identity” crisis stage, I’ve also noticed traces of their earlier developmental “crises.” This week, for instance, I was chatting with one student about her math classes and expressed surprise at the fact that she was already in geometry (I didn’t take geometry until high school!). She shared with me that at her school she always had the opportunity to work at her own pace, and ended up moving into more advanced classes. It was cool to see how much she lit up as she shared this – not in a braggy way, but in a way that made it obvious that she saw herself as capable of doing math and succeeding in school. This made me think of the “industry vs. inferiority” crisis that these students are likely coming out of. It seems as if the structure of Arcadia – where students are asked to work at their own pace – might help foster a positive, “industry” resolution in their students. Young adults like this student, who was encouraged to accomplish work at her own pace/level, may end up feeling like more capable and competent students.

Identity development

In terms of identity development, I believe that Arcadia mostly promotes healthy identity development in their students. From the very first day I was aware that there are a variety of different people who work in the school building – teachers, parents, college students, teaching assistants. I think this variety of people, from a number of different backgrounds might help students develop their identities in a healthy manner – as they are able to see that there are many different ways to grow up and engage with the world. The teachers are also very good at recognizing different identities in their classwork. This week I sat in on a health lesson, taught by a young teaching assistant. As she spoke about different parts of the reproductive system, I was amazed by just how inclusive she was – she taught about the biology of intersex people, brought up trans surgeries, and repeated over and over again that “all bodies are good bodies” even if they don’t look exactly like the images she was showing. This was a really lovely thing to observe, and I believe might help students feel more comfortable accepting and achieving their own gender/sexuality.

My only critiques of the school is that 1) although the adults in the building differ greatly in terms of age/occupation, the school is very white. For the most part, it appears that the student body reflects this teacher makeup – but I wonder if BIPOC students might have a harder time healthily resolving their identity crisis with a lack of BIPOC teachers/subjects reflected in the school environment. And 2) the teachers often use shaming strategies (ie. removing a student from the class in front of everyone, openly chastising students) as a means of disciplining them. According to Erikson, this level of shaming may take away from young adults being able to see themselves as industrious, capable students.

Erikson and Me

Diary entry time!! Thursday’s class was a really important experience for me – these last few weeks I have been obsessively worrying about the future: who I want to be, what I am going to do, where I want to go. And even though I have not yet resolved any of these issues, it was incredibly relieving to realize that struggling with these questions is a normal (and important!) part of development. If you haven’t guessed already, I am squarely in the “moratorium” stage. I am incredibly unsure about what I want to do in the future – some days I wake up and think I should go to law school, other days I want to be a teacher or a nurse. Last week I freaked out and spent a whole day googling if it was too late to be pre-med (spoiler alert: as a senior American Studies major with almost no science classes…. Yes. Probably too late.). I have also been questioning other aspects of my life – I am going to have to make a decision in the next few months about following my boyfriend to his PhD program; I have been thinking about my responsibility to stay near family; heck, I have even been rethinking my sexuality! I definitely related to a lot of the descriptions of “moratorium youth” in Kroger and Marcia’s article – in particular, their higher levels of anxiety.

(^me, relating to being anxious)

But, I honestly have been feeling a lot better after our class on Thursday – so thank you to everyone who was vulnerable and shared their own experiences. We are going to be okay!

Other comments:

I continue to think about the pitfalls of online learning and the role of discipline in classrooms as I observe at Arcadia. This week, walking into the classroom I was in for another surprise: all of the students, save one, had disappeared! When I asked the remaining student where everyone was, she replied that they had all been kicked out – they had been too distracted at school so they were forced to do school from home for the next few weeks. Hearing this was a little bit heartbreaking; I have watched several of the students struggling to sit through hours of online classes in silence and I don’t blame them for wanting to talk to their neighbors or act out.

I am curious what this particular discipline tool will do for their learning & development. By removing the students from the building, they lose access to classes and important social interactions. And I can imagine that they faced a lot of shaming responses – likely from their parents, in addition to the teachers, who probably felt frustrated with their return to home. Changes in their classroom behaviors/attitudes will definitely be things I’ll pay attention to as the students return to class.

• This topic was modified 3 years, 9 months ago by Tonja Clay.