Rationale
Why teach issues related to Identity? You can get into some fairly tricky areas when promoting a plan for identity building for another. I maintain the idea of a formative process of identification, that is, where nothing that identifies us need be concrete during its development, but instead takes a malleable form, where change is necessary and absolutely required when presented with new and potential identifying factors. And, the pursuit of the structure of our identity is the indication that we are striving both beyond our current self and striving towards something that we can become as an augmentation of our previous schemas of self. This path to the creation of ourselves can be an uphill and challenging one, supporting the idea that one becomes more of who they are after some sort of experience where they are tried, or tested, and where the outcome becomes a descriptor for the type of person one must be. I personally hope the activities described in this unit, combined with the study of Identity through the exploration of Native American sources will resonate with my students, allowing them to shed a light and gain a sense of the qualities that shape their own ideas about being young in an intense urban setting.
There is a strong feeling, in the case of my students, that you are who you are: a direct link to your people, your neighborhoods and the associations through your deeds. You can't manage a façade on this one, a phenom called, "Fronting," or being, "Fake." Luckily, there is room for improvement and change in the eyes of my students. Frequently persons can manipulate theirs and others' understandings of themselves by honing their skills through practice, whereby new levels of acknowledgements arise from flexing academic and athletic prowess. A good sense of humor balanced with a keen sense of its delivery is also a coveted social marker and, of course, money helps. Definitely the outer appearance of a person, clothes, hair and grooming is quite possibly the strongest image builder for others and observably affects esteem. One can only change this position with a superior skill demonstrated from the previous lines. Another student can overlook clothing when the individual is seen as a humorist or a proficient ball player. Finally, we take a study in Identity because feelings of identity can form as a result of the pursuit of, "Self-Actualization," (Goldstein, cited by Maslow, 1943) which is the crowning point of Abraham Maslow's, "Hierarchy of Needs." Maslow centers his thinking on the premise that there are basic needs for all humans. These basic needs are also termed, "deficiency needs," and relate to physiological, human needs such as the need for food, water, safety and belonging. They form the bottom three of tiers of the pyramidal model by which he illustrates his theories. At the top of the pyramid are the two needs classified as, "Being needs," which are given as "Esteem," on the fourth level and the aforementioned, "Self Actualization," placed at the very top. Maslow tells us that the Actualization level is the culmination of the bottom levels and is also dependent upon them to materialize. The general sense is that once our biological needs can be met, we are free to strive to be our personal best. Specifically, Maslow says that Self Actualization is, "The intrinsic growth of what is already in the organism, or more accurately, of what the organism is" (Maslow, 1943). With this apparent nod to the vocabulary of Identity, Maslow adds a further facet to the top strata, the need for "Self Transcendence." This concept, which compliments the top of the pyramid model, includes the spiritual needs of humans, describing the meaning of life as, ". . .found in the world rather than within man or his own psyche, as though it were a closed system." (Maslow, 1943). If we are to embrace Maslow's model, highlighting especially the connectedness of the levels, one can see that without the bottom end of the pyramid the top level is rendered virtually unattainable. Herein lies the biggest challenge facing our students—who indeed have basic biological needs which are sometimes unmet and which can prevent them from being those successful self-actualizing individuals that we hope they will be. I believe that the American Indians, as a large confederation of cultures, were largely a self actualized group, fully assuming their potential as evidenced by keen spiritual practices deeply rooted in response to the natural and supernatural world around them. This is, to say in a general sense, and certainly, before mass European contact.
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