Education: A personal reflection

This first blog asks for a reflection of my experiences with culture and identity in relation to education. Using the Hall, Neitz and Battani reading I hope that I will be able to discover for myself how education really influenced my personal development. Firstly my education has always been at my local public schools. I went to East Blaxland Primary School and then Blaxland High School. Both these places carry very positive memories for me. I met the majority of my friends there, I found out about different styles of music there, I discovered a passion for English there and ultimately I’ve chosen my career from because of my experiences at school.

Looking through the Hall et al reading there are a few things that strike me as relevant in answering why school has the ability to influence so heavily. In a society that is very much a part of individualism the idea that ‘individualism emphasize[s] self reliance’ (Hall, Neitz and Battani, 22) is very significant. School is perhaps the place where this individualistic culture is really cultivated. There is certainly a collective feel to various aspects to school, for example your year group are one and the same, and your school uniform identifies you as a member of that school even having a school motto gives members of that community something to relate to. However in terms of results, that is solely dependent on the student. One must be self reliant if they are to achieve their goals. Certainly for me I had to turn a corner in year 10 in order to start achieving my academic potential in senior school, I had to be self reliant.

Another area in the reading that really struck me was the quote about the characteristics of a narcissist. Without going as far as labelling myself a narcissist, the line ‘heightened self esteem coming only through attachment to a strong admired figure from whom acceptance is craved’ (Hall et al, 28) really resonated with my final years of school. My 2 unit and 3 unit English teacher was a massive influence on me and there certainly was a real desire to achieve the very best I could in order to heighten my self confidence in the subject. Education really has the ability to create such strong role models that make students feel a certain attachment to strong teachers. Positive marks from those teachers really can heighten one’s self esteem. So is school creating individualistic narcissists? Probably not but it could be an interesting topic for discussion.

http://www.blaxlandhigh.com.au/ourschool.php?id=20 – The topic asked for a reflection of your own experience, as a result there’s no news article in this blog, however there is a link to my old high school.