When I was in the midst of the “who am I”/“what am I going to do with my life” muddle, I began to read Erik Erikson’s book,
Identity: Youth and Crisis
. It was a huge relief to learn that I was not experiencing something atypical.
I discovered that Erikson’s own life history led him to examine the issues involved in “coming of age”. His personal background is unusual: he was born to Danish parents and lived in Germany. His father died when he was a baby and his mother remarried a German physician. Rather than going to the university as his stepfather wished, he drifted—spending some time with friends walking in the Black Forest and spending the rest of the time in Florence and Vienna studying art. He never did enroll in a formal university program but received training in Montessori education and eventually started a school using its methods. While in Vienna he also became an accepted and well respected member of a group of lay analysts, educators, and physicians—the Vienna Psychoanalytical Society.
Erikson’s unusual choices did not handicap him; he became known as a gifted and sensitive analyst with an unconventional approach and perspective due to his background with children. Like many others in this psychoanalytic community he emigrated to America upon the rise of Hitler. He was invited to develop new programs focusing on children in this country. In the 30’s anthropologists asked him to join them to do field work with the Sioux Indians.
These experiences coupled with his own history led him to create a model for human development different from the Freudian psycho-sexual one with which we are all familiar. He identified eight life stages from birth to death. Each stage is characterized by the social as well as the physical and mental developmental hurdles that arise during the particular age. Adolescence, for example, involves the emotional crisis of “Identity and Role Confusion.” Physically, the body is changing or has changed so that the child becomes an adult—able to reproduce. Mentally, the adolescent’s brain can function on a more complex level than can a child’s. Ambivalence and in-betweens become a possibility. Socially, the adolescent is preparing to leave home in order to embark upon a career and create a new home. New responsibilities as well as new freedoms must be coped with. Emotional issues stem from the mounting pressures and create, according to Erikson, a feeling of confusion that is normal and healthy, not neurotic, or evidence of personality breakdown. Each emotional crisis has a positive and negative component, a polarity, which must be experienced in order for growth or a resolution of the life stage to occur.
For anyone unfamiliar with the eight stages I have listed them below along with the approximate ages and the changes in social relationships that take place during each stage.
STAGE
AGE
CHANGES IN SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS
|
Trust and Mistrust
|
0-18 months Relationship to mother
|
Autonomy and Doubt 18mths.-3yrs. father, family, relatives
|
Initiative and Guilt
|
3-5
|
peers, community members
|
|
Industry and Inferiority
|
6-12
|
teachers, classroom, clubs
|
Identity and Role-Confusion 13-18 . . adventures beyond home/school
|
Intimacy and Isolation
|
18-30
|
selection of “significant other”
|
|
Generativity and Self-
|
30-55
|
giving to the next generation
|
Absorption
|
Integrity and Despair
|
55 . . . .. decreasing social contacts—
|
|
|
|
returning to family
|
As I stated earlier I, personally, was drawn to the Erikson stages. Throughout my teaching career, I have designed curricular materials for many different skill levels based on these stages. My reasons for teaching Erikson go beyond my own enthusiasm. Adolescence is a time of introspection, a time to examine values, goals, political and religious beliefs, and attitudes towards one’s own family. It is, therefore, a personal time. To dwell on this introspection, however, is not my aim. Rather, I believe it is important to acknowledge the students’ focus on themselves and channel that interest and energy in two directions: reading literature that explores various life crises and observing, interviewing, and interacting with people at different points in the life cycle. I have noticed that adolescents’ extreme egocentricity causes them to believe that everyone feels as they do. Our culture further isolates teenagers by providing them with their own music, clothes, and fads. Schools keep kids together. Young people spend the bulk of each day with people of their own age, thus reinforcing each others’ beliefs and values.
I feel it is crucial to provide students with an understanding of age differences as a way to confront this egocentricity. Erikson’s eight stages provide the structure to achieve that goal. By presenting all eight stages, a teacher can expose students to new concepts, vocabulary, and literature that help explain the life crises. The contact with people offers students a chance to hear other points of view: listening to a Gray Panther discuss the inequities of our culture may prompt a student to question, act on his/her beliefs, or think differently about a grandparent. Watching children and discovering that one has the ability to teach and form a relationship may provide a sense of confidence and self-respect.
Since many students are also parents, looking at issues that small children encounter may clarify the behavior of their own children. By studying the Erikson stage, “Trust and Mistrust,” students may realize the importance of building a warm, loving, relationship with an infant. Similarly when students see that a toddler is developing independence they may be able to identify with that struggle and have more empathy.
Finally, I chose to write up this unit because teaching Erikson’s eight stages of human development has been a successful vehicle for pulling a class together to read, discuss, write, imagine, and observe. Many types of students—mature, young, articulate, average, and below average—have been attracted to the course and have worked toward meeting the expectations of the course: attendance, writing, and group participation.
In preparing this unit I have thought of it as an eight week unit for juniors or seniors, capable of reading intermediate to advanced level material. Equally important is my assumption that students will be encouraged to participate in group discussions, role-play, student-led interviews, and small group work. Room flexibility is also recommended so that the furniture does not inhibit activity and student interaction.
How To Begin
In a class where so much can be gained by having students feel comfortable with each other so that they will relate their own experiences, taking time to establish or re-establish relationships is a must. In the first meeting of the class, after introductions, I ask them to gather in a circle in order to get to know one another. (for more information see Appendix 1 “Guidelines on Running a Sharing Circle”.) I ask the group to think about the street or one of the streets where they lived as a child. I then describe the street where I lived, setting the tone by being brief and direct. “It was a gravel, dead-end road that got very dusty.” Each student then gets a turn as the teacher makes sure that the circle moves quickly. Allow students to pass, but give them a second chance at the end of the round.
The second round should be more specific and personal. Have each student name one thing that he or she did on that street while still a child. This gives students the opportunity to talk about one activity they used to enjoy. Again, give each person a turn so that you can encourage participation.
The third and fourth rounds can be open discussion, as opposed to giving each student a turn. Ask students to think about what they imagined themselves to be as they played. For example: “I always wanted to be Dale Evans and play ‘Cowboys/girls and Indians.’” Students will usually talk about playing Superman, Batman and other “superheroes” as well as doctor, nurse, teacher, secretary, etc. finally ask them to think ahead in time and share what they imagine they will be doing in ten years. Encourage each person to talk.
Journal writing is a good follow-up to the “sharing circle”. Ask students to write down the similarities and/or differences between how they saw themselves at five and how they see themselves in the future. How do they account for the changes? lack of change? This exercise does several things: 1) it gives every student a chance to articulate his/her ideas even if he/she did not participate previously; 2) it introduces the idea that all ages do not think alike; and 3) it gets kids writing right away.
The final activity should make clear that skill development is also a function of the class. Give out a list of 25-30 words that are associated with different age groups: bottle, prom, wedding, scouts, career, wheelchair, etc. Ask students to put these words together and label the groups however they wish. Usually some student will classify the words by age. That furnishes another way to introduce the broad topic of the course: the life cycle and human development.
A homework assignment can then be a paragraph of a description of themselves as they are now. On the first day, then, I have encouraged them to participate within a group, assigned two types of writing, and introduced the subject matter of the class.
The next class should reinforce the previous day’s expectations: student participation, the homework assignment, and the new concepts. Ask students to read over silently their own homework and think about what ideas they discussed. What was important enough to be included? After a brief discussion ask them to brainstorm a list of interview questions that would elicit similar information from any age group. Next ask students to choose someone that they do not know and interview them using the questions just listed.
As a follow-up ask them to answer these questions in their journals: Which questions did you avoid: Why? What type of questions gave you the most information? Which are the best ten? Then combine three pairs into a group of six and have these new groups select the best ten. Finally as a whole group discuss which questions will facilitate finding out what different age groups feel about their age. Questions that have worked in the past are: “What do you like to do with your free time?” “What do you care about?” “What do you spend money on?” “Where do you spend the biggest part of your waking hours?”
The next homework assignment might be to have students interview at least two people from different age groups that are not family members. Assign each student to an age group and define the age boundaries: pre-schooler, elementary age, 20-30 year olds, 30-55, and retired or senior citizens.
As soon as students arrive the next day, team them up with others who have worked on the same age category and have the various teams prepare group reports on what pre-schoolers, elementary schoolers, young adults, middle-aged folks, and their elders thought/ felt/believed. Finally, students should write an essay about the ways in which age can make a difference in how people act, think, and feel. At this point for less advanced students distribute a vocabulary list including important words that have been used such as: behavior, development, physical, emotional, social, mental, etc.
Teaching the Eight Stages
During the first week you have introduced the components of the class—small group discussions, interviewing, vocabulary, journals, and paragraph writing. You are now ready to introduce the Erikson stages. In a mini-lecture, talk about Erikson’s life and the development of his theory of life stages. Explain the idea of polarity. It may be important to stress the fact that Erikson’s theory is about normal folks, not abnormal mental patients. Sometimes students associate all psychiatrists with “crazies” and dismiss what Erikson has to say.
