[Note: From time to time, this blog issues a set of
postings that summarize what the blog has been emphasizing in its previous
postings. Of late, the blog has been
looking at various obstacles civics educators face in teaching their
subject. It’s time to post a series of
such summary accounts. The advantage of
such summaries is to introduce new readers to the blog and to provide a
different context by which to review the blog’s various claims and arguments. This and upcoming summary postings will be preceded
by this message.]
Recently, this blog referred
to an individual developmental model credited to the philosopher, Hegel.[1] The reader is invited to look up that
posting, “Introducing Maturation as a Factor,” October 9, 2020. That model identifies three phases that a
person goes through as he/she “grows up.”
This present posting aims to operationalize phase two; the phase that, for
the most part, corresponds to the adolescent years.
The only other developmental condition this review wishes
to point out that occurs during phase one is what the psychologist, Steven
Pinker, points out; i.e., how even young children have significant abilities to
think abstractly. But all agree that
that ability increases significantly during phase two.
And that increased ability usually seems to be targeted at
certain aspects of life. One of them is
how issues of freedom relate to these young people’s more intense
self-consciousness and their feelings concerning how their social arrangements
place limitations on that freedom.
Often, this tension deals with issues regarding their lifelong goals and
what they perceive as obstacles to those goals.
This tension can and usually does become intense and,
according to Philip Selznick, leads to a good deal of unhappiness – a
prevailing emotional state during adolescence.
Fundamentally, the young person faces what he/she sees as unjustified
constraints, albeit the constraints are generally seen as reasonable by the authorities
who impose them.
What saves the day, unfortunately, is repeated experiences
of frustrating results and the mind seeking answers to what ails these
youngsters. That is the capacity to reason
“sneaks” back into their calculations and they figure out that “liberation” can
be achieved by what Jonathan Haidt suggests:
there must be a better way and that includes being reasonable. By its nature, reasonableness calls for one
to see how others see things. This opens
up for the individual the ability to appreciate communal realities.
And this realization, both by the youngsters and with those
who work with them, leads one to see a development within this
development: the progression of
motivations from reciprocity to sentiment to self-fulfillment. That is,
·
first, one tends to be motivated to
reciprocate either positive or negative interactions with others;
·
second, one tends to develop corresponding
feelings – liking those who offer positive interactions and disliking those who
don’t; and
·
third, one understands his/her
advancement toward self-defined aims and goals is enhanced by positive relationships
that provide resources and assets.[2]
And
as phenomenological research points out, these developments have certain
consequences. One, young people can
reconcile their recurring subjective perceptions and the opposing objective
realities around them since they are more apt to accept reality – their newly
found reasoning demands they do so. And
with this change, they begin to feel less tension and a growing sense that they
are at home in their surroundings.[3] This general development opens people to feel
federated with their fellow citizens.
One should not consider these developments as natural. There are certain aspects of the natural that
support these phases – one does naturally want to get along and help others –
but there are also aspects of people’s natures that oppose these developments –
one naturally tends to limit one’s altruistic sense to people they see as Us as
opposed to Them. The point is, social
environments go a long way toward determining whether this phase of maturing takes
place and, if it does, how it takes place.
One such place is school and, in a more targeted sense, civics
classrooms.
Of course, this potential is just that, a potential. It might not happen, and immaturity can well
survive high school, college, even all of adulthood. There is an ample number of immature adults walking
around. They increase the likelihood
that negative interactions take place.
They, in seeking their “liberty,” are likely to enhance obstacles for
themselves and others to maturing. These
people can be affected, but not necessarily, by dysfunctional psychological
afflictions such as social psychotic maladies.
A lack of empathy, for example, can be detrimental.
Despite that, this blog seriously and consistently calls
for a proactive posture by civics educators to assist in their charges in
advancing through the maturing process.
Knowing its various aspects can only be helpful. Hopefully, what this blog shares, assists
those educators in developing those lessons, questions, and materials that instruct
students as to the nature of what they find as challenging in their everyday
lives.
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