The Mismatch Between Home Values and School Values - Research Paper Example

The Mismatch between Home Values and School Values Introduction Adolescence is generally described to the evolution period from childhood to adulthood mainly between years 13-19. The adolescent age is one of the most influential stages in the life of an individual, as an individual experiences some developments. Physical development is one of the biological developments that occur during adolescence. At the end of the adolescence period, many youngsters have developed so much that they are capable of having children. Intellectual development is another development that takes place during adolescence (Joseph 2012). At this stage, it is correct to conclude that most girls and boys only perceive in concrete terms the world in which they are living. They fail to have plans as they are concerned with the present life, and this is helpful in explaining the problems such as drug taking that are on the rise among adolescents. The adolescence stage comes with it different problems which need to be tackled by the concerned stakeholders, mainly the teachers and parents, to prevent losing children who succumb into these problems. The emotional development that young people go through is mostly linked to these problems. When a young person gets to the adolescence stage, he or she develops the urge of wanting to be independent. This need of independence makes them create a distance between them and their parents (Janet 2014). The different myriad forms that young people go as they search for independence include having less overt affection, pushing things to the limit, being adventurous, and spending quite a good amount of time with friends. One major problem faced by adolescents is engaging in sexual activities that result into teenage pregnancies and the spread of diseases like HIV. Most young people engage in sexual activities due to pressure from their peers and engage in the taking of drug substances like alcohol. Schools teach students to be responsible for their actions and avoid misleading peers. Teachers encourage students to open up to them when faced with difficult circumstances as they are there not only to educate them but also advice them. In the home environment, these kids find themselves in situations where it is even difficult to communicate their problems with their parents. This is caused by the notion they bear that they are growing up or rather they are grown up and do not require any assistance from their parents (Maria 2013). Most parents are ever conflicting with their children, and this makes it hard for such children tell them things, which are disturbing them. In addition to the numerous conflicts parents have with their children; there is a notion with the parent that schools need to teach their children ways of dealing and handling their peers and thus do not concentrate on trying to teach them such things. Schools believe that it is critical for students especially those in the adolescence stage to open up to teachers as it helps in dealing with the problems faced by such students. Research shows that young people engage in sexual activities due to being pressured by their age mates and that having a discussion with a person older than them helps reduce the cases of them engaging in such activities (Joanne 2012). A parent will shy away from discussing with his or her children who are at the adolescence stage important such as how to control the sexual urge brought by adolescence. It would be of help if parents shared with their young children how they overcame the sexual urge brought by adolescence when they were young. The sexual urge in young children is a huge distraction in their educational and psychological development. When the adolescents go through this phase, they tend to have very many problems associated with learning. Some of the problems may be self-induced where the character may carry out activities that may not be appealing for the studying of the person. On the other hand, the adolescent may have difficulties that may arrive naturally from the fact that they are going through adolescence and that this may have a legitimate effect on their learning. Whichever the reason as to why an adolescent may be performing poorly, it is important to understand the mechanisms through which they solve the problems to know whether they are effective for the efficiency and future endeavors of the adolescent. One of the key issues that adolescents encounter while continuing with their syllabus is poor study skills. The poor study skills are often involved with the memory capability of the adolescent because often they do not concentrate in class owing to adolescence. Parents are very influential in this as the achievement of various goals in the developing mind of a young kid (Wendy 2013). It is crucial for the parents to bring in any form of memory that they may have regarding the earlier stages of life of the adolescent. The forwarding of this information is very important in that the adolescent has the ability of also remembering these concepts that may be linked with the learning. It is very likely that, at a tender age, the adolescent did not have or find the essence of education. However, after much canceling and education, the adolescent finds the essence of education and can store the memories of those simple learning concepts in mind for long. Psychologically young people in the adolescence phase tend to think always about sex and become perverts. According to people in the adolescence phase, they spend most of their times thinking about and trying to have sex. Theoretical Approach In view of trying to understand how adolescence leads to sexual behaviors in young people, I related certain aspects of the Erik Erikson psychosocial development theory. According to him, the main stage to an individual is ego identity development, which occurs during adolescence. Ego identity occurs when an individual interacts with people (Joseph 2012). The interaction of different people from various areas leads to the constant changes in the ego identity as people acquire new information and experiences daily from these interactions. Erikson states that individuals in the adolescence phase have to deal with internal conflicts or crisis that arises in the adolescence developmental stage. The way in which an individual deals with such conflicts determines their future development and personal identity. The first crisis that a person during adolescence goes through is the identity confusion versus crisis of identity (Joseph 2012). During this crisis, an individual tries to find the balance that exists between having a unique identity and concurrently fitting into the society. This is the stage that youths try to mould the image, which they would want other people to see have of them. It is imperative that young people deal with this crisis successfully as failure to this result to the loss of their identity, confidence, which in turn results to weak self-sense, and confusion. Young people who feel that their parents fail to understand them or support their decisions tend to keep a distance with them preferring to become close with their peers. The frustration that such people have make them result to engaging in behaviors such as sex as they are not concerned about the future. According to them, engaging in sexual behaviors is one way of punishing their parents for not understanding and supporting them. The careless nature when engaging in sexual activities results to pregnancies and spread of diseases. Unsuccessfully dealing with this adolescence crisis makes an individual feel cut off from the rest of the population and views that engaging in activities such as alcoholism are his or her escape route (Wendy 2013). Drug taking is one of the main factors that have contributed to young people engaging in sexual activities. People in the adolescent phase are confused as to what they want in life and how people would react. The grown ups are important in ensuring that people at this phase emerge successful maintaining their identity. Young children tend to be freer with their teachers than are with their parents and this gives the teachers a major task of ensuring that they direct them in the right manner. Teachers encourage students to be free with them and this makes it easy for students to share their problems with them. Adults have a lot of experience in life and thus young people tend to heed to their advices. Teachers are best placed to guide their students in what to do with their lives as they spend more time with them (Janet 2014). A teacher knows the ability of all his or her students and this makes it easy for him or her advice them on the best thing to do in life. The second crisis that people in the adolescence phase as outlined in Erikson’s theory is isolation versus crisis of intimacy. During this phase, people struggle to decide the best ways of reciprocating intimacy. They do not seem to agree the point at which a mutual balance exists between receiving and giving support and love. Youths are tasked with the responsibility of determining the extent at which the relationship with friends outside the family should go. They should also know how to reciprocate love when engaging in romantic relationship. This is the most sensitive crisis whose lack of success can be disastrous. Failure to become successful with the second crisis makes them become self contained and distant leading to them becoming needy and vulnerable. The inability to resolve this second crisis makes such people’s emotional development stall (Maria 2013). According to such people, no one in the world cares or loves them and thus lives a life of isolation. The changes in the levels of confidence are a factor that affects these children psychologically and they may have difficulties associating with other kids. These kids have the tendencies of feeling hopeless, this may lead them to performing poorly in schools, and this has the long-term effect of having these students failing in life. Young people living an isolated life turn to vices such as drug abuse and this makes them engage in sexual activities, as they have no control of what they do. There are those who do not know the extent in which romantic relationships should be and thus engage in sexual activities, which may result to teenage pregnancies and spread of deadly viruses such as HIV. Adults such as parents and teachers have the responsibility of taking the young people through ways of overcoming this crisis. The last part of the process is the usage of friends who are very effective in the incorporation of the metacognition manner of easing the effects of the changes taking place. When these children stay together, they get to understand that they are going through the same phase and thus comfort each other. Friends are involved with the person in a closer manner than even the parents and the teachers. This is because the adolescent trusts them and is free to talk about anything with them. Though metacognition is referred to as a manner of self-control and it is up to the adolescent to carry out the activities in his own manner, friends come in handy in the resolution of this (Maria 2013). Through metacognition, the adolescents should hold study groups where adolescents in turns take the role of a teacher and offer some lectures from a book, the adolescent’s aim is to incorporate the classroom scenario and assist the listening adolescents to pay full attention by controlling themselves not to become preoccupied by the various natural occurrences in the area. Erick Erikson’s theory of development is helpful as it is now clear that a young person deserves proper attention. Interacting with them is very helpful as they open up what they are feeling particularly teachers. It is important for teachers to involve parents in matters to do with their children as they contribute heavily to the behaviors children go through. Conclusion It is important to know that the adolescent stage is one of the most critical stages in the life of an individual. This stage has many characteristics and feelings that portray themselves in an extended manner as compared to normal times. It is thus appropriate that the parents, friends, and teachers of children going through this phase take the students seriously. The reason for stating this is that some adults assume that these children are just implying these feelings. Failure to understand these children may lead to them carrying out activities that may cause harm to themselves and this is a major problem. It is also appropriate for these children to know that their parents and friends are always there for them and thus should not fear the stage nor react in an unappealing manner. References Joseph, A. (2012). Adolescent–parent attachment as a mediator of relations: International Journal of Psychology. 21 (3), Pgs 1185-1190. http://eds.b.ebscohost.com/eds/detail?sid=9846f280-2604-40c9-9c40-a9a4d6e63975%40sessionmgr112&vid=1&hid=104&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmU%3d Janet, L. (2014). Parent-Adolescent Discrepancies: Journal of Child & Family Studies. 23 (2), Pgs 106 – 108. http://eds.b.ebscohost.com/eds/detail?sid=5d41e41c-518a-4399-8d02-757a6e1b8ce3%40sessionmgr111&vid=1&hid=104&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmU%3d Maria, F. (2013). Factor Structure of the Adolescent Coping Orientation. Psychological Reports. 112 (3), Pgs 845 – 871. http://eds.b.ebscohost.com/eds/detail?sid=45ae0445-be47-4897-97914f8b8baabbf9%40sessionmgr110&vid=1&hid=104&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmU%3d Joanne, C. (2012). Evaluation of Raising Adolescent Families Together Program: A Medical Home for Adolescent Mothers and Their Children. American Journal of Public Health. 102 (10), Pgs 1875-1885. http://eds.b.ebscohost.com/eds/detail?sid=7810ccd2-7d07- 4172-ad26-7cae4bf22ab7%40sessionmgr198&vid=1&hid=104&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmU%3d#db=bth&AN=82052509 Wendy, C. (2013). Factor Structure of the Adolescent Coping in the School System. American Journal of Public Health. 43 (5), Pgs 567-593. http://eds.b.ebscohost.com/eds/detail?vid=8&sid=770e0c53-8caa-45ca-82ff-160152b91cc8%40sessionmgr111&hid=104&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmU%3d#db=bth&AN=91926355 Read More