Teacher seeking input: School meeting your needs? (1 Viewer)

[Burge]

Hi all!

Quick intro so you know who you're dealing with... I'm a 25y/o male who recently decided to go to UNI to retrain as a high school teacher.

One of my first assignments (psychology subject) is to survey some 'adolescents' and find out if they think their school is meeting their development needs, so I’m hoping some of you could help me out please.

I don’t want to limit your creativity, but the areas I’m looking for are

Emotional : Feel accepted, you ‘belong’, feel ‘secure’, feel significant, challenged with new experiences, feel that you are achieving something worthwhile.

Cognitive: (your ability to think): Encouraged to plan for future, to think in abstract ways, consider ethics, racism, global warming, poverty, take on more responsibility, increase independence.

Social: Does school help or hinder your ability to create more meaningful friendships than when you were a kid, tolerate others more, promote closeness with your family and help you balance advice from parents and peer group

Physical: (I’m very mindful of the importance of boundaries here… please avoid discussion of sex as much as possible.)
Help you understand changes to your body, that people all develop at diff rates, girls before boys etc, that your body will be different to others but you can feel good about your physical appearance, weight gain being a natural part of development for most etc.

Please keep in mind that the idea is to consider the above from the perspective of how well your school helps in these areas.

If anyone would prefer to email me their responses, please feel free – my forum profile is set to accept emails.

Thanks in advance for your time in your busy schedules!

 

[Burge]

Oh, and if mods think this post should be moved to another section, please do!

 

[Captain Gh3y]

consider ethics, racism, global warming, poverty, take on more responsibility, increase independence.

Typical university stuff.

 

[Rafy]

Hmm pity for you that they gave you this task 2 weeks before the HSC Final exams. You'll find that most people are trying to study.

 

[loquasagacious]

Emotional: Feeling of belonging but that stems from social. Now particular feeling of accomplishment, school was a means to an ends.

Cognitive: You seem to confuse cognitive development and civics/citizenship these are very different. With the exception of extension courses I didnot find school particularly mentally stimulating. The english syllabus obvioulsy tried to impose abstract thinking etc etc etc but i percieve(d) that as largely wank and did not find it stimulating. My cognitive abilities (hell this assumes they can even be developed) developed largely away from school.

Social: School definantly helps develope friendships. As far as balance goes though I think more the most part a social life won over both parents and study.

Physical: I thought all PDHPE theory was a wank - 'sexual development and diversity' certainly chief among these (between only by 'drugs are bad' and 'two drinks is a binge'). I was already well aware of developemental issues.

As an aside I think the focus on self esteem and 'its alright to be fat and ugly, because the person inside matters' is bullshit. I think it hampers people socially (those that believe it) and is a joke to evryone else. Furthermore its acceptance of fat i think contributes to our obesity problem, I'm fine with it being ok to be ugly (it even helps prevent STDs) but being fat is not ok. It's unhealthly - so why encourage it.

 

[Burge]

You seem to confuse cognitive development and civics/citizenship these are very different.

To exaggerate the point, a baby is completely selfish, and only capable of considering their own needs. An adult is capable of empathy and other's needs. Adolescents develop this awareness, where they are now able to consider "civics/citizenship".
ie I am not suggesting that cognitive development is just developing a social conscience, but that is one of the indicators of development and a school should be doing things that aid your growth in these areas.

Note too that the term adolescent covers a large age range and you people are up the finishing end of it.

As an aside I think the focus on self esteem and 'its alright to be fat and ugly, because the person inside matters' is bullshit. I think it hampers people socially (those that believe it) and is a joke to evryone else. Furthermore its acceptance of fat i think contributes to our obesity problem, I'm fine with it being ok to be ugly (it even helps prevent STDs) but being fat is not ok. It's unhealthly - so why encourage it.

I wasnt suggesting that society should start to promote acceptance of unhealthy weight gain, nor that people should accept an unhealthy weight as 'ok', because ultimately that is to their detriment as well as societies. What I am suggesting, and this is far more relevant to females, is that females will add weight to their body in a number of areas as they develop a womanly figure rather than the stick figure of a female child. Our society in general values the childish figure in models, but this is simply not naturally the way woman will appear in general. Wider hips and thighs for example come about through pubity whether you are fit and healthy or not, and a young woman needs to understand this, especially if she is developing earlier than her peers.

 

[Meldrum]

School Loves Penis. Women Rule The School.

Fight For Masculism!

 

[24]

School Loves Penis. Women Rule The School.

Fight For Masculism!

This man is a genius.

 

[Casmira]

Emotional: yes! our school keeps nailing in that "school spirit"

Cognitive: sort of, our school doesnt push for it as much

Social: our school does nothing to encouragre friendship

Physical: school says nothing about that

 

[^CoSMic DoRiS^^]

emotional: in a way...mostly by bringing in the counsellor to talk to the grade once every so often about "teen issues"

cognitive: it depends whether you want to try or not, but i would say yes.

social: yes

physical: our school is quite sports oriented/fanatical (if you listen to some of the PE teachers) and we get more than enough sex ed, so yep, provided for.

 

[NobodyKnows]

Sounds like an interesting project, of sorts.... hope this helps.

Emotional : Feel accepted, you ‘belong’, feel ‘secure’, feel significant, challenged with new experiences, feel that you are achieving something worthwhile.

Hm. Difficult to answer all up, but – I’ll try. School is split into two very different categories/relationships; the ones you have with your teachers, and the ones you have with your peers. In short, I am accepted by my teachers, and I’ve formed great relationships with them – maybe it’s the whole ‘positive adult influence’ or something, or that I don’t get along with my parents much. With my peers, it’s a different story. I’m not really liked, I’m merely tolerated.

I went through a period – specifically, end of last year up to now – where I felt like I was killing myself (figuratively speaking....) studying, maintaining good grades, etc and it was all for nothing. But now I see that there is a light at the end of the tunnel (I’m an Ext 1&2 Eng student, can you tell from my words yet?) and there is something worth striving for.

Cognitive: (your ability to think): Encouraged to plan for future, to think in abstract ways, consider ethics, racism, global warming, poverty, take on more responsibility, increase independence.

I’m definitely planning for the future, it’s really the only thing keeping me going – the prospect of happiness. I consider issues such as ethics, racism, global warming, poverty, etc as any other teenager/young adult would – these issues are affecting the entire world, in some way or another. There’s really little I can do myself to change anything, but working together we might be able to achieve something. Study periods have played a major role in this perception - it's great to be able to express your opinions and have an adult agree with you. Really boost your self-esteem.

Social: Does school help or hinder your ability to create more meaningful friendships than when you were a kid, tolerate others more, promote closeness with your family and help you balance advice from parents and peer group

School helps with relationships, I suppose (does it count that I met my ex-boyfriend by being his tutor??) and it’s definitely helped my ability to open up to people.... I’m not really a very social person, but according to my mid-course report, nearly all my teachers put that I have “blossomed” in confidence. Woohoo for me.

‘promote closeness with your family and help you balance advice from parents and peer group’ – ok, there is zero closeness with my family; I live MY life, they live THEIR lives, end of story. I don’t go to my parents for advice (never have, never will) but I do go to my teachers, especially the ones I’m closer to.

Physical: (I’m very mindful of the importance of boundaries here… please avoid discussion of sex as much as possible.)
Help you understand changes to your body, that people all develop at diff rates, girls before boys etc, that your body will be different to others but you can feel good about your physical appearance, weight gain being a natural part of development for most etc.

I love the fact that I have such open-minded teachers. I remember we had a study period and were slacking off (hey, whatever) and our teacher was a casual, but she mainly taught PE. We got to talking about hypothetical situations and how they’d change your life. Examples were: if you fell pregnant and had a baby at 17 – what would you do? OR Your parent/brother/sister needs an organ transplant, and you are the ideal donor, although giving up the organ means a life on dialysis (or the equivalent) for you, and a life of health and wellbeing for your relative – what do you do? Discussions like that help to broaden your horizons, I suppose - and talking to adults about serious topics makes you feel like an equal.

Teachers dealt with puberty the best that they could, I have no complaints there. But things like diets leading to disordered eating patterns, depression, general feelings of unhappiness, etc could have been handled a little more gently, if you catch my drift.... being available to “talk” is comforting, but shoving a councillor under your nose or something leads to a wall going up between you and the one you thought you could trust; wrecks the self-confidence thing, you know?

In short - my school is my safe haven. If I have a problem, I go to my teachers (specifically, the ones who I absolutely love and trust with my life). School meets my needs just right; or, the teaching side of it does. The student body is another thing entirely....

Hope I helped, at least a little, and good luck with your assessment.

 

[Burge]

BIG Thanks to all of you who have posted above and sent me private messages with both your stories and your encouragement.

You've collectively put a lot of time and effort into your responses and I'm very grateful!

You’ve provided me a nice variety of perspectives on the topic, and taught me some important lessons as well. I hope I will be able to provide some of the more positive aspects, and avoid the negative ones, in my future teaching career.

I am going to start constructing the outline of my assignment now, so while I am sure I could continue to gain a lot from your experiences, from this point on, I won’t include any more of them in my essay.

THANKS EVERYONE!​