The Dull Razor’s Edge: Identity and Efficacy in the B Student
It started with a pair of Wahl hair clippers my brother bought with money made working part-time at the pizza parlor down the street from our home. Being raised by our dad made some things difficult for us. Other things seemed to happen without our even trying. “Oops” my brother said as he was giving me a back-to-school haircut while Dad was at work. I watched a chunk of hair as it fell to the floor. That was when I decided to try sporting a cleanly shaven head. There was no political ideology behind it, no gesture of solidarity for an ailing friend. It looked cool; and in the week leading up to entering High School, that was all the reason I needed. My friends were in awe, my dad was not impressed, but my teachers never mentioned it. In their defense, they had never seen me with hair. However, their overlooking my stark white, shiny head was the first in many let downs for an eager student who clearly craved attention.
Throughout high school I was given the reinforcement that “good enough” was my best. I was a solid B student without ever really trying. I stayed out of trouble and stayed off the radar. As a result, I have a hard time remembering my teachers. None of their lessons stick out, none of their teaching methods come to mind; none of them took me under their wing; none of them made me try my hardest. For me none of them were that teacher that they make movies about, be it Edward James Olmos in Stand and Deliver, Michelle Pfeiffer in Dangerous Minds, Jack Black in School of Rock, or even Tom Berenger in The Substitute. In school, I felt I was on my own to define my identity, as a student and as a young man.
Sincerity and efficacy are the traits that I hope to instill in each one of my students. These traits are necessary pieces of being a whole and committed student. Sadly, and perhaps appropriately, these were traits that I had to struggle to find on my own. Knowing how difficult this was drives me to strive to become more than a teacher of content. As a teacher I hope to equip my students with the tools necessary to achieve their goals, to find what they are passionate about, and the understanding that they can pursue their passions.
Adolescents are perhaps the farthest from adopting sincerity as a guiding philosophy as any of us are. They are concerned with fitting in and acceptance. Much of this behavior is not simply a search for an identity but the building of identity. James Marcia (1966) describes this phenomenon as "identity-diffusion," stating that adolescents in the identity-diffusion stage are trying out different identities without much concern for whether one sticks. I, personally, remained in a moratorium for identity until my second year of college. This is important stage of development should fostered by teachers with the caveat that they encourage the student to develop their personality as part of the more superficial search for identity within a style or peer group.
For adolescents it is often safer to hide behind irony. Yet, creating identity through opposition is dangerous for adolescents. To use irony effectively, one must have a base of beliefs. Without personal beliefs and values, identity “...becomes a more or less arbitrary matter of social relations. Identity can be multiple, transformative, and variable without impinging on the obstructive notion of an inner soul. Social identity is expressed not in terms of ego-based utterances but in terms of superficial signs: clothing, style of life, advertising, and so on (Ferguson, 1999, p.13). Adolescents may never fear being vulnerable or uncool because of what their interests are when they only identify with what they dislike. However, they also may not develop a authentic personality. I want my classroom to be a place devoid of negative irony and sarcasm, a place where students feel protected, where they can make personal connections to each other and themselves through shared literary experience.
The focus expended on my personal identity struggle precluded me from seeking relationships with teachers. I was amiable, sometimes funny, but always felt that avoiding a teacher’s notice was my best strategy for continued success. Perhaps my B-student status was a self-perpetuating. However, I doubtless would have benefited from a mentor, an advocate, a teacher I could have a meaningful connection with. When it came time to apply to colleges I was faced with the realization that I had no teachers I could ask for letters of recommendation, help with application essays, or simply go to for advice. I was on my own and it left me feeling as though no one believed in me. I used the angst I felt as motivation to fuel my success, but it was a lonely place to learn from and largely unnecessary.
From an early age, I was given the impression there was a hierarchy of students. In third-grade I learned about the TAG program. Talented and Gifted, of which I was apparently neither. There did not seem to be a way to work up to be included in this program. The best of us was plucked from our classes and, for all I knew, were allowed to eat candy and goof off. If there was a nuclear threat, these TAG students would be ushered to the fallout shelter while the rest of us were reminded to crouch beneath our desks. Based on studies comparing students from “gifted” schools and “regular” schools in matters of efficacy, Zimmerman & Martinez-Pons (1990) explain, “teachers may wish to use instructional or assessment procedures that reduce social comparison and focus on task mastery to ensure optimal motivation (p. 58). Rather than designating TAG students and accepting the assumption that all other students are somehow deficient, teachers should focus on creating an atmosphere where all students are motivated and given the confidence to achieve. The study goes on to posit, “evidence that gifted students display very high levels of self efficacy precociously...can explain the extraordinary motivation and achievement of these students. Teachers may wish to use self-efficacy measures to better understand students with little motivation as well as to better identify areas of students' giftedness (58). Here, the authors are missing their own best point; they are inexplicably making the argument that efficacy breeds efficacy. It is not the goal of teachers to help advance the precocious and understand the unmotivated. Students who start with efficacy are encouraged and labeled gifted. Therefore, if more students were given efficacy at an early age the number of gifted students would accordingly rise. It is the goal of the teachers to motivate all students and instill self-efficacy in every student.
As a teacher, I want to empower students to be the self they have found so far. I want a class where being silly is safe. I want students who are serious to be challenged. I do not expect my students to love the reading selections that I assign. But, I want them to discover what they do love and to love that unabashedly, to never feel shame for reading or be embarrassed by what they are reading or its perceived level of reading. Be it high literature, fantasy novels, thrillers, comic books or young adult romances, I want my students to never be ashamed of themselves.
I do not feel that I was given a poor education. In fact, I did fairly well in school without ever really trying. For me class was something that I got through in order to have the perks of socializing and having fun at school. However, without the self-efficacy and mentorship I found in college, I may have abandoned academia the moment I was challenged. When students are allowed to slip through the cracks, or pass unnoticed because they are doing well enough, they are done a disservice by the educational system. Unfortunately, being a solid B student is not terribly remarkable. Often these are students that no one feels they need to worry about or offer extra assistance or encouragement. My goal as a teacher is to encourage each student to find themselves both personally and in an academic sense and discover the confidence and motivation they need to achieve.
References
Ferguson, H. (1999). Glamour and the end of irony. The Hedgehog Review, 1, 9-16.
Marcia, J. E. (1966). Development and validation of ego-identity status. Journal of personality and social psychology, 3(5), 551.
Zimmerman, B. J., & Martinez-Pons, M. (1990). Student differences in self-regulated learning: Relating grade, sex, and giftedness to self-efficacy and strategy use. Journal of educational Psychology, 82(1), 51.
It started with a pair of Wahl hair clippers my brother bought with money made working part-time at the pizza parlor down the street from our home. Being raised by our dad made some things difficult for us. Other things seemed to happen without our even trying. “Oops” my brother said as he was giving me a back-to-school haircut while Dad was at work. I watched a chunk of hair as it fell to the floor. That was when I decided to try sporting a cleanly shaven head. There was no political ideology behind it, no gesture of solidarity for an ailing friend. It looked cool; and in the week leading up to entering High School, that was all the reason I needed. My friends were in awe, my dad was not impressed, but my teachers never mentioned it. In their defense, they had never seen me with hair. However, their overlooking my stark white, shiny head was the first in many let downs for an eager student who clearly craved attention.
Throughout high school I was given the reinforcement that “good enough” was my best. I was a solid B student without ever really trying. I stayed out of trouble and stayed off the radar. As a result, I have a hard time remembering my teachers. None of their lessons stick out, none of their teaching methods come to mind; none of them took me under their wing; none of them made me try my hardest. For me none of them were that teacher that they make movies about, be it Edward James Olmos in Stand and Deliver, Michelle Pfeiffer in Dangerous Minds, Jack Black in School of Rock, or even Tom Berenger in The Substitute. In school, I felt I was on my own to define my identity, as a student and as a young man.
Sincerity and efficacy are the traits that I hope to instill in each one of my students. These traits are necessary pieces of being a whole and committed student. Sadly, and perhaps appropriately, these were traits that I had to struggle to find on my own. Knowing how difficult this was drives me to strive to become more than a teacher of content. As a teacher I hope to equip my students with the tools necessary to achieve their goals, to find what they are passionate about, and the understanding that they can pursue their passions.
Adolescents are perhaps the farthest from adopting sincerity as a guiding philosophy as any of us are. They are concerned with fitting in and acceptance. Much of this behavior is not simply a search for an identity but the building of identity. James Marcia (1966) describes this phenomenon as "identity-diffusion," stating that adolescents in the identity-diffusion stage are trying out different identities without much concern for whether one sticks. I, personally, remained in a moratorium for identity until my second year of college. This is important stage of development should fostered by teachers with the caveat that they encourage the student to develop their personality as part of the more superficial search for identity within a style or peer group.
For adolescents it is often safer to hide behind irony. Yet, creating identity through opposition is dangerous for adolescents. To use irony effectively, one must have a base of beliefs. Without personal beliefs and values, identity “...becomes a more or less arbitrary matter of social relations. Identity can be multiple, transformative, and variable without impinging on the obstructive notion of an inner soul. Social identity is expressed not in terms of ego-based utterances but in terms of superficial signs: clothing, style of life, advertising, and so on (Ferguson, 1999, p.13). Adolescents may never fear being vulnerable or uncool because of what their interests are when they only identify with what they dislike. However, they also may not develop a authentic personality. I want my classroom to be a place devoid of negative irony and sarcasm, a place where students feel protected, where they can make personal connections to each other and themselves through shared literary experience.
The focus expended on my personal identity struggle precluded me from seeking relationships with teachers. I was amiable, sometimes funny, but always felt that avoiding a teacher’s notice was my best strategy for continued success. Perhaps my B-student status was a self-perpetuating. However, I doubtless would have benefited from a mentor, an advocate, a teacher I could have a meaningful connection with. When it came time to apply to colleges I was faced with the realization that I had no teachers I could ask for letters of recommendation, help with application essays, or simply go to for advice. I was on my own and it left me feeling as though no one believed in me. I used the angst I felt as motivation to fuel my success, but it was a lonely place to learn from and largely unnecessary.
From an early age, I was given the impression there was a hierarchy of students. In third-grade I learned about the TAG program. Talented and Gifted, of which I was apparently neither. There did not seem to be a way to work up to be included in this program. The best of us was plucked from our classes and, for all I knew, were allowed to eat candy and goof off. If there was a nuclear threat, these TAG students would be ushered to the fallout shelter while the rest of us were reminded to crouch beneath our desks. Based on studies comparing students from “gifted” schools and “regular” schools in matters of efficacy, Zimmerman & Martinez-Pons (1990) explain, “teachers may wish to use instructional or assessment procedures that reduce social comparison and focus on task mastery to ensure optimal motivation (p. 58). Rather than designating TAG students and accepting the assumption that all other students are somehow deficient, teachers should focus on creating an atmosphere where all students are motivated and given the confidence to achieve. The study goes on to posit, “evidence that gifted students display very high levels of self efficacy precociously...can explain the extraordinary motivation and achievement of these students. Teachers may wish to use self-efficacy measures to better understand students with little motivation as well as to better identify areas of students' giftedness (58). Here, the authors are missing their own best point; they are inexplicably making the argument that efficacy breeds efficacy. It is not the goal of teachers to help advance the precocious and understand the unmotivated. Students who start with efficacy are encouraged and labeled gifted. Therefore, if more students were given efficacy at an early age the number of gifted students would accordingly rise. It is the goal of the teachers to motivate all students and instill self-efficacy in every student.
As a teacher, I want to empower students to be the self they have found so far. I want a class where being silly is safe. I want students who are serious to be challenged. I do not expect my students to love the reading selections that I assign. But, I want them to discover what they do love and to love that unabashedly, to never feel shame for reading or be embarrassed by what they are reading or its perceived level of reading. Be it high literature, fantasy novels, thrillers, comic books or young adult romances, I want my students to never be ashamed of themselves.
I do not feel that I was given a poor education. In fact, I did fairly well in school without ever really trying. For me class was something that I got through in order to have the perks of socializing and having fun at school. However, without the self-efficacy and mentorship I found in college, I may have abandoned academia the moment I was challenged. When students are allowed to slip through the cracks, or pass unnoticed because they are doing well enough, they are done a disservice by the educational system. Unfortunately, being a solid B student is not terribly remarkable. Often these are students that no one feels they need to worry about or offer extra assistance or encouragement. My goal as a teacher is to encourage each student to find themselves both personally and in an academic sense and discover the confidence and motivation they need to achieve.
References
Ferguson, H. (1999). Glamour and the end of irony. The Hedgehog Review, 1, 9-16.
Marcia, J. E. (1966). Development and validation of ego-identity status. Journal of personality and social psychology, 3(5), 551.
Zimmerman, B. J., & Martinez-Pons, M. (1990). Student differences in self-regulated learning: Relating grade, sex, and giftedness to self-efficacy and strategy use. Journal of educational Psychology, 82(1), 51.