Personality

Certain misconceptions pressure students into conformity. When students cannot genuinely develop their individuality, they imitate an image.

Students Know What They Want

Students cannot decide what to learn because they don’t know it yet. They go to school in order to learn what society deems important. If we accept that truth exists, but we ask students to find it for themselves, they will never find it. Students are not going to reinvent algebra and physics. They don’t know where to start, and it leads to inefficient learning. This is equally true in social situations. We should guide students toward correct behavior instead of throwing them off the deep end as a rite of passage. The warning that life is a journey, or “life is unfair”, is the excuse that parents and educators give to avoid responsibility. We should equip students with what they need to know. It’s not their “right” to suffer as they “find themselves” and “figure it out”. Students know what they want in the sense that they should study what interests them at the moment, as long as it is part of a structured curriculum.

Democracy Requires Opinions

Students are not good at civics because they are not at that stage in their development. To encourage students to have opinions on civics, and to become activists, signals to students that we are not serious about the nature of learning, and how it’s reflected in human development. Students should be encouraged to write about things they know about, like their personal experiences. By using real life examples, students have something to shape into a story. Grammar, logic, and rhetoric only become necessary when there is something to communicate. Without actual substance, students are searching for a purpose, and they are unable to express themselves. It causes students to doubt themselves because they are expected to say something they don’t have a basis for.

Students Have Multiple Intelligences

Students recognize at a young age that some people are better at certain things. When schools play into stereotypes about the jock, the bookworm, or the math whiz, students give up on things they’re not good at. They say “I’m not good at math, so it’s a waste of time to apply myself.” It is true that people have natural inclinations, but it is also true that all subjects are connected. Studies show a correlation between top athletes and top scholars. Students who avoid misconceptions about “forming an identity” and “fitting an image” are able to improve in all areas of life. This is necessary because even as students specialize, they can’t defer on everything. We need a certain amount of physical health, intelligence, and judgment to do anything, like deciding whether we need to hire a specialist in the first place. Students who sell themselves short, limit their potential growth.

You Can Be Anything You Want

“You can be anything you want” is true in the sense that we want to do what we are good at. If our goal was to do something impossible, it wouldn’t be our goal in the first place. Students who dream of becoming a professional basketball player are good at playing basketball. That’s why they dream of it. But not everyone can become a professional basketball player. We all have unique gifts that exist for the sake of society, and unless we develop those gifts, society wont have useful skills. We’re all needed for society to function correctly, and that motivates us to put in the effort. There needs to be someone to bake bread, and fortunately there is someone who likes doing that. There needs to be someone to build a bridge, and fortunately there is someone who is good at that. We shouldn’t dismiss our calling in life, or downplay it, by saying that “anyone can do anything”. It crowds out talent and pressures people into doing what they’re not meant to do.

Truth Hurts

Most conflict is imaginary as students play out identities as a way to test social norms. Schools should teach students that statements are either true or false. If a statement is true, we should thank the person for pointing it out, even if it’s hurtful. Our pain signals that we are sensitive about it because we haven’t confronted the issue. If a statement is false, it has no impact on us because it’s false. It reflects poorly on the person who says it. Students should internalize the issue to see where they can improve.

Be Yourself

It’s better to be hated for who you are, than to be loved for who you are not. Our unique individuality exists whether we like it or not, and we shouldn’t play it up as an “identity”. An identity says that value comes from being something, rather than from doing something. It tricks us into going against our nature for the sake of “self-expression”, instead of learning reality so we can fit into society. Students who obsess over identity miss their opportunity to contribute something beyond themselves. They are not being themselves, so they feel angry or sad.

Let It Go

Mistakes don’t bother us when we are committed to learning. Mistakes are in the past, so we can’t change them, and we learn from them. Students either admit their mistakes, and let them go, or they pretend they aren’t mistakes by letting their morals go. If we let our morals go, we experience even more chaos. Reality doesn’t spare us, even if we don’t “believe in that”. Students, especially vulnerable students, blame the resulting problems on society. We add to the confusion by giving them the vocabulary to misidentify the causes.

Freedom Means Unlimited Rights

Institutions that reinforce correct behavior control us in the same way that laws against violence control us, which is for our benefit. We pretend that constraints are incompatible with freedom, when they are the only way to be free. We can’t be free if we are slaves to our personality because that will control us, and we won’t know how to act. Our shared commitment to truth is the ultimate constraint because it explains how to act in all other relationships: with ourselves, our family, our country, and the world. It establishes responsibility, which gives us freedom. Students who develop self-discipline at a young age don’t need supervision. They don’t indulge in emotions or fall prey to destructive behaviors that characterize adolescent rebellion.