I continue to be amazed by what some people will say when they are pushing a social agenda. When David W. Hornbeck, chair of the Task Force on Education of Young Adolescents, envisages the ideal 15 year old having a self-image of competence and strength. This isn’t too shocking for me. What is is his next statement: “This self-image will be based on the fact that the youth will be at least very good at something, because success is critical to a positive self-image.”
Hornbeck’s statement is one of the vilest things I have ever heard. I realize that kids should be given every opportunity to succeed, but success is not all there is to life. Teachers have the task of embedding virtues and values to students, not pushing them to be the best. Hornbeck must have a great self-image since he succeeded in producing one hell of a fallacy.
If Hornbeck’s words had any worth then almost nobody would participate in competition. Why would they? If they don’t think they’re very good, then there’s no use in even trying. If only very good people participate there will be further reduction in participation because only the truly gifted will be successful in such competitions. In terms of their future, Hornbeck is not inspiring teens, he is killing their spirit.
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I agree with you that the Hornbeck article was in fact very difficult to read in that his statements are very inflammatory towards adolescents. His attitude of being good at just one thing above all else goes against my own personal concept of what teachers do in that as a teacher it is our goal to motivate and to allow students to develop on their own as individuals while questioning that with which they both agree and disagree, and simply wanting students to be good at something, while potentially ignoring all others is a recipe for potential disaster in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteI think you interpreted Hornbeck's use of the word "success" as being competitive or as an indicator of being better than someone else. I don't think he meant success in terms of out competeting others, but rather as a goal set by ourselves to achieve. As he said it doesnt need to be related to a job, or making money, or winning an atheletic competition. Self-image is self-determined, so it doesnt need to be in comparison to others. However, self-image is often developed by judging oneself against others. Hornbeck states that it could be familial or community oriented so ones self-image could be based upon what type of a person they are, or how "successful" they implement thier values, rather than how much money they make or how many awards they win.
ReplyDeleteThe problem i do have with this article is that it states what an ideal teen is, but not how we as teachers/parents can help them achieve this. I think the list that Hornbeck uses to describe the ideal teenager is fine, but he never states how we can assist in this or what steps we should take to help mold them into this ideal person.
I think the quote “This self-image will be based on the fact that the youth will be at least very good at something, because success is critical to a positive self-image.”, walks a very fine line. I do see your problem with how he says self-image is directly related to success. In no way should this be the only measure of your self image. However, I do agree with this statement, but one must be aware how one defines success. The problem here is that children do not often haev the ability to measure their self-improvement, they can much more easily measure their successs against other students. What needs to be the focus in determing success is the internal improvements one makes. For instance, if you always measure your success against the best, rarely will you see it as one because someone will always be better. But if you are able to look at the improvements that you as an individual make, that is where the true success lies. The hard part in this is measuring it in the school system we have. Programs such as NCLB does not consider improvement within, it is only concerned with improvement compared to. Once we look at it through this perspective we can begin to accurately measure success.
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