Erikson would put the students in Mr. Dube’s classes into the identity vs. role confusion stage. They are 9th and 10th graders who are trying to figure out who they are, what they believe in, and who/what they want to be. I don’t know how much I’ve been able to see of students working through this stage in the classroom. Unfortunately, I think that the classroom and Mr. Dube’s teaching methods don’t create the best environment for students to work through Erikson’s stages of development. This doesn’t mean that his teaching style is wrong, I just think he is prioritizing different things from Erikson’s theory. The room is set up in a standard isolated desks style, and most of the class is lecturing and independent work. This combination means that there is little opportunity for the class to interact with each other and work through their identity vs role confusion stage in the classroom. Maybe if Mr. Dube did more group work or even working in pairs, then the classroom could be a space for students to learn and grow in Erikson’s stages of development. Some good things he does to promote identity development in the classroom is he always begins class by having a casual, free flowing conversation with the students. This seems to benefit some of the more talkative students, but doesn’t too much for the shy quiet ones.

I am probably in the moratorium phase of Marcia’s theory. Like a lot of people my age, I have gone through and probably will continue to go through periods of depression and other similar things that Marcia would label as crises. I think covid also has created a unique kind of identity crisis for people our age, and has added to the struggles with identity and purpose that usually come during this time. The other reason why I think I’m in moratorium is because I have very little idea about who I am or what I want to do with my life. I definitely am in a stage of life where I am open to learning and trying new experiences and ideas and beliefs. Because of this I think I would fit into Marcia’s moratorium category pretty well.

One random thing that I’ve been thinking about this week is Mr. Dube’s philosophy on assigning homework and in class assignments. He really emphasizes his belief in not giving a lot of work, and overall I think it makes sense. He feels that he’d rather have students just read in class than fake their way through some writing assignments or worksheets. Additionally, he feels that homework can sometimes broaden the gap between the high and low achievers in his class, since the more homework he assigns means the more certain students will fall behind. One worry I’d have about this is that he might be setting his expectations kind of low for his students.