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Jul. 23rd, 2005 11:37 amTaken from: Cerda (2000) Joven y Alumno: ¿Conflicto de Identidad? At Santiago, Chile: LOM (Publishing House), 152 pp http://www.aaanet.org/cae/aeq/br/cerda.htm
Youngs and students. Identity Conflict?
A collaborative study by four Chilean researchers completed over a two-year period in two public high schools in Santiago. The schools serve low-income urban adolescents.
Adults often verbally abuse students. The abuses are always public, and the most feared are humiliations. Humiliations are at the root for students’ lack of classroom participation. Students try to become "invisible" so that adults will not point them out or ascribe to them psychological characteristics such as "being slow." Because of the assumption that very poor students live among "criminals," students do not want adults to associate them with anyone from an extremely poor neighborhood (where houses are made of cardboard on public land). Teens imitate adults and humiliate kids poorer than them. Therefore, students spend a lot of time discussing their home areas as "safe" and "without problems." Another result of this insult is that students need to form groups in order to be/feel protected from fellow students and adults.
The researchers claim a direct correlation between the prevalent verbal abuse and the lack of student self-esteem. Lack of self-esteem correlates with lack of interest in the school and the dropout rate. In support of the professors we must be aware that they teach a minimum of 45 students per class with hardly any support materials. In addition, the professors’ pay is so low that they have several different jobs in order to make ends meet.
In these high schools, as well as in some in the United States, the miseducation of our children cannot be corrected simply by adding academic training for their professors and/or by including a religious component to the children’s education. It appears to me that respect for the "other" is still in short supply in our global community and is totally lacking for economically deprived people. Could it be that we are all "afraid of the poor," as Mother Theresa stated?
Youngs and students. Identity Conflict?
A collaborative study by four Chilean researchers completed over a two-year period in two public high schools in Santiago. The schools serve low-income urban adolescents.
Adults often verbally abuse students. The abuses are always public, and the most feared are humiliations. Humiliations are at the root for students’ lack of classroom participation. Students try to become "invisible" so that adults will not point them out or ascribe to them psychological characteristics such as "being slow." Because of the assumption that very poor students live among "criminals," students do not want adults to associate them with anyone from an extremely poor neighborhood (where houses are made of cardboard on public land). Teens imitate adults and humiliate kids poorer than them. Therefore, students spend a lot of time discussing their home areas as "safe" and "without problems." Another result of this insult is that students need to form groups in order to be/feel protected from fellow students and adults.
The researchers claim a direct correlation between the prevalent verbal abuse and the lack of student self-esteem. Lack of self-esteem correlates with lack of interest in the school and the dropout rate. In support of the professors we must be aware that they teach a minimum of 45 students per class with hardly any support materials. In addition, the professors’ pay is so low that they have several different jobs in order to make ends meet.
In these high schools, as well as in some in the United States, the miseducation of our children cannot be corrected simply by adding academic training for their professors and/or by including a religious component to the children’s education. It appears to me that respect for the "other" is still in short supply in our global community and is totally lacking for economically deprived people. Could it be that we are all "afraid of the poor," as Mother Theresa stated?
