Final Paper
What is resiliency? Resiliency is the ability to recover quickly from difficulties. People are not born with resilience, it takes time to develop through the process of challenging situations. The development of resilience can make a huge influence in their outcome in society. Those who are more resilient to challenging situations have an economical and motivation advantage compared to individuals who aren’t as flexible to change. Resiliency is developed during young ages, such as six to eighteen year olds, and are also influenced by the educational environment around them. Student dropouts, high school students, children, have their opportunity to develop resiliency through their struggles and circumstances.
Children are easily influenced by the constant involvement of their parents and adults around them. Their young and vulnerable age helps them realize the differences in life, adjusting their knowledge and learning habits. These learning habits are developed at young ages, Alfie Kohn believes, “Children are said to be indulged and overcelebrated, spared from having to confront the full impact of their inadequacy...it distracts us from rethinking competition itself and the belief that people can succeed only if others fail” (1). Children now, and students of the future, are prone to being non-resilient. Children nowadays acquire rewards in failure, thus losing the development of resilience to challenging situations. For example, if a child is upset after losing a soccer match and is given a reward, the fact that he lost the match will have no meaning anymore. The writer claims, “my intent is to probe the underlying cluster of mostly undefended beliefs about what life is like (awful), what teaches resilience (experiences with failure), what motivates people to excel (rewards) and what produces excellence (competition)” (Kohn 1). The authors ideas aren’t completely flawed. It isn’t presumptuous to assume that the future children and students are treated like princesses and princes. Their mere existence will become unfulling if they are given anything they want instead of what they need. They will eventually be petrified by the unjustified outcome of their lives, unable to presume due to the lack of resilience and tolerance from failure. Resiliency must be developed at the early stages of life in order to accept the failures in the future; as a result, these individuals are capable of tolerating their own flaws and persevering towards anything they do.
The idea of dropping out of school can start at an early age. This mentality can potentially influence an individual’s success in society. These individuals may lack what most people consider, the make it or break it point, resilience. For example, high school students are more likely prone to an absence of educational resilience. The lack of educational resilience is caused by “learning environment”, “classroom instruction”, “motivational aspect”, family with “high or low expectations” (Waxman 11). It is undeniable that the challenges in high school, pressures these young adults to prepare for their educational advancement.The classroom environment as well as the teacher’s instructions has to be engaging and encouraging in order to improve a student’s self esteem, thus giving them a higher motivation in education. Parents play an extremely active role in child’s education because resiliency tends to develop with supportive families. Thus, resilience can be influenced by almost every factor around a student. Hersh Waxman, a professor at the Texas A&M University, researched that:
Resilient students...spent significantly more time doing math homework each week than non-resilient students. Resilient students also indicated that they spent more time on additional reading than non-resilient students did… [b]etween the two groups on attendance records… resilient students were less likely to report cutting or missing classes and being late for school than non-resilient students were. (14)
Regardless of the homework subject, students who were more resilient showed self determination to complete the homework. Back in high school all homeworks were given a grade for completing the assignment; therefore, if a student decided not to complete a few homework assignments, it will accumulate overtime, resulting in a poor grade. Attendance is equally as important as completing a homework assignment. Although a school’s income is based on the students attendance, students who make an effort to show up to class has a motivation that drives them to learn.
Student dropouts rates have always been a huge issue in both the educational system and the government. According to Christine A. Christle, an associate professor in the Department of Education Studies at the University of South Carolina, “Students who drop out of high school have fewer options for employment and, if employed, usually end up working in low skilled, low paying positions with fewer possibilities of advancement” (325). A successful life from a student dropout can be very grim, subsequently their motivation to go back to school is little to none at all. Because these students lack resiliency to preserve for a higher education, drop out students will end up working long hours and possibly making minimum wage. Christle also explains how “the Center of Democratic Policy, Institute for Educational Leadership, reported that dropouts comprise 52% of welfare recipients, 82% of the prisoner population and 85% of Juvenile justice cases” (Christle 325). These are astonishing numbers for the outcome of high school dropouts. Drop outs are now dependent of the government and taxpayers due to their failure to proceed in a higher education. Although dropout students have a concerning outcome, dropouts rates have significantly decreased. Statistics show that, “ The national high school dropout rate fell to 3.4% (514,238 students), down from 4.1% the previous year. That's the lowest it's been since at least 2002-03” (Enquirer 1). Perhaps the decrease in dropout rates are influenced by the highly competitive job employment. Jobs would’ve been easily obtainable without a diploma decades ago; however, with an economy that's in recession, employment rates are low and demand for educated individuals are needed. A significantly lower dropout rate may be uplifting, but inevitably each individual must be resilient to the competitiveness of employment and society itself.
Resilience is not a stable substance that can be held, it can both be gained and lost through the process of aging. This correlates to the idea of the functionalist perspective because it emphasizes the interconnectedness of society by focusing on how each part influences and is influenced by other parts.The main focuses of this perspective are the ideas of balance and equilibrium.With different categories of resilience, it displays each categories learning capabilities from one another. For example, one can be born without resilience but gradually develop resilience from those who are resilient. Vice versa, someone can also lose resilience from being influenced from those who don’t have resilience. However, not all people are influenced from peers and these examples are only specific cases of resilience development and how we need differences to learn from one another.
Everyone and anything can have a negative impact on an individual’s ability to recuperate from hardships, but only those who can recover from challenging situations can survive in society. Resiliency is like a survival kit, it can be handed out to everyone like the students, the children, and the students who dropped out of school. If the survival kit is used wisely, those who use it will survive and appreciate what’s given to them. On the other hand those who misuse the survival kit, will end up wounded thus they’d have to make the best out of the situation. It is unfortunate to say that only the survival of the fittest can overcome the development of resiliency.
Children are easily influenced by the constant involvement of their parents and adults around them. Their young and vulnerable age helps them realize the differences in life, adjusting their knowledge and learning habits. These learning habits are developed at young ages, Alfie Kohn believes, “Children are said to be indulged and overcelebrated, spared from having to confront the full impact of their inadequacy...it distracts us from rethinking competition itself and the belief that people can succeed only if others fail” (1). Children now, and students of the future, are prone to being non-resilient. Children nowadays acquire rewards in failure, thus losing the development of resilience to challenging situations. For example, if a child is upset after losing a soccer match and is given a reward, the fact that he lost the match will have no meaning anymore. The writer claims, “my intent is to probe the underlying cluster of mostly undefended beliefs about what life is like (awful), what teaches resilience (experiences with failure), what motivates people to excel (rewards) and what produces excellence (competition)” (Kohn 1). The authors ideas aren’t completely flawed. It isn’t presumptuous to assume that the future children and students are treated like princesses and princes. Their mere existence will become unfulling if they are given anything they want instead of what they need. They will eventually be petrified by the unjustified outcome of their lives, unable to presume due to the lack of resilience and tolerance from failure. Resiliency must be developed at the early stages of life in order to accept the failures in the future; as a result, these individuals are capable of tolerating their own flaws and persevering towards anything they do.
The idea of dropping out of school can start at an early age. This mentality can potentially influence an individual’s success in society. These individuals may lack what most people consider, the make it or break it point, resilience. For example, high school students are more likely prone to an absence of educational resilience. The lack of educational resilience is caused by “learning environment”, “classroom instruction”, “motivational aspect”, family with “high or low expectations” (Waxman 11). It is undeniable that the challenges in high school, pressures these young adults to prepare for their educational advancement.The classroom environment as well as the teacher’s instructions has to be engaging and encouraging in order to improve a student’s self esteem, thus giving them a higher motivation in education. Parents play an extremely active role in child’s education because resiliency tends to develop with supportive families. Thus, resilience can be influenced by almost every factor around a student. Hersh Waxman, a professor at the Texas A&M University, researched that:
Resilient students...spent significantly more time doing math homework each week than non-resilient students. Resilient students also indicated that they spent more time on additional reading than non-resilient students did… [b]etween the two groups on attendance records… resilient students were less likely to report cutting or missing classes and being late for school than non-resilient students were. (14)
Regardless of the homework subject, students who were more resilient showed self determination to complete the homework. Back in high school all homeworks were given a grade for completing the assignment; therefore, if a student decided not to complete a few homework assignments, it will accumulate overtime, resulting in a poor grade. Attendance is equally as important as completing a homework assignment. Although a school’s income is based on the students attendance, students who make an effort to show up to class has a motivation that drives them to learn.
Student dropouts rates have always been a huge issue in both the educational system and the government. According to Christine A. Christle, an associate professor in the Department of Education Studies at the University of South Carolina, “Students who drop out of high school have fewer options for employment and, if employed, usually end up working in low skilled, low paying positions with fewer possibilities of advancement” (325). A successful life from a student dropout can be very grim, subsequently their motivation to go back to school is little to none at all. Because these students lack resiliency to preserve for a higher education, drop out students will end up working long hours and possibly making minimum wage. Christle also explains how “the Center of Democratic Policy, Institute for Educational Leadership, reported that dropouts comprise 52% of welfare recipients, 82% of the prisoner population and 85% of Juvenile justice cases” (Christle 325). These are astonishing numbers for the outcome of high school dropouts. Drop outs are now dependent of the government and taxpayers due to their failure to proceed in a higher education. Although dropout students have a concerning outcome, dropouts rates have significantly decreased. Statistics show that, “ The national high school dropout rate fell to 3.4% (514,238 students), down from 4.1% the previous year. That's the lowest it's been since at least 2002-03” (Enquirer 1). Perhaps the decrease in dropout rates are influenced by the highly competitive job employment. Jobs would’ve been easily obtainable without a diploma decades ago; however, with an economy that's in recession, employment rates are low and demand for educated individuals are needed. A significantly lower dropout rate may be uplifting, but inevitably each individual must be resilient to the competitiveness of employment and society itself.
Resilience is not a stable substance that can be held, it can both be gained and lost through the process of aging. This correlates to the idea of the functionalist perspective because it emphasizes the interconnectedness of society by focusing on how each part influences and is influenced by other parts.The main focuses of this perspective are the ideas of balance and equilibrium.With different categories of resilience, it displays each categories learning capabilities from one another. For example, one can be born without resilience but gradually develop resilience from those who are resilient. Vice versa, someone can also lose resilience from being influenced from those who don’t have resilience. However, not all people are influenced from peers and these examples are only specific cases of resilience development and how we need differences to learn from one another.
Everyone and anything can have a negative impact on an individual’s ability to recuperate from hardships, but only those who can recover from challenging situations can survive in society. Resiliency is like a survival kit, it can be handed out to everyone like the students, the children, and the students who dropped out of school. If the survival kit is used wisely, those who use it will survive and appreciate what’s given to them. On the other hand those who misuse the survival kit, will end up wounded thus they’d have to make the best out of the situation. It is unfortunate to say that only the survival of the fittest can overcome the development of resiliency.
Reflection
This was a really fun paper to type but not as great as my project 2 presentation. Project 2 and 3 were based on on another but focused on either the micro or macro of education. Resilience is a hard topic to discuss because it had multiple factors. However by looking at it from most the important perspectives I'd notice the substantial increase in weaker individuals. I hope my observation is incorrect but we really do need some change to improve the mentality of adults and children. This was a fun and meaningful research topic, I hope I'll look more into education even without it being mandatory.