The Identity Mystery

Two days and approximately 150 students later, I have a start to a meaningful insight into what teenagers think of identity. I would like to think that my findings are much less confusing than those in the first text of the course pack. Social, Narrative, Psycological, Psychosocial, etc. theories seemed to be too "textbook" and disconnected for my taste. I posed several questions regarding identity to my 10th and 11th grade students, which they wrote in their journals (What is your perspective regarding identity? Are we born with it? How does it change over time? When are we "set" in our identity?), and here is a summary of my findings:

As I suspected, each individual shared common themes in his/her answer. Some had tons to say, while others had just a little.

• It is conclusive in my informal study that social surroundings do affect a person's identity. This should not be anything surprising. I know that my friends and family growing up affected how I dressed, talked, etc. until a certain age.
  
• Some students believed that we were not set in our identities until death. This seemed to be a trend until my last class today. A girl posed that after a person dies, their identity can shift drastically according others' perspectives. JFK's identity to the U.S. wasn't nearly as positive as it became after his death. While this is something to consider, the focus here is personal identity, us versus ourselves; but I thought this young lady had a point.
• Some said that we are born with an identity, and how we live our lives shapes that identity.
• Others disagreed and said that we aren't born with an identity. As we grow older it appears and develops.
  
• Many said they are not set in their identities because any event (i.e. trauma, brush with death, losing a friend) can change who they are in an instant. I believe this relates to social surroundings affecting identity.
  
• Some said that they are very comfortable with themselves, but as they grow older, that could easily change.
  

These were some of my findings. I will come back to this when I have the texts in front of me (I left the course pack at school by accident). In my eyes and how I live, I agree with these statements. As I see it, identity stages cannot be accurately measured because we are all individuals and not programmed robots.

Overall, our identities are affected by our interactions, no matter what label we attach to measuring identity trends. I have seen "A" students start hanging with rough crowds and turn into "C, D, F" students, or worse, dropouts. As I read more of this first section, it is possible that some of my opinions on the matter could change. Until next time...