A Beard’s Life
In Ancient Indian civilizations, long beards were venerated as a symbol of dignity and virility. In fact, it even served as capital for debt settlement. I started growing facial hair at the age of 12. Not pre-pubescent fuzz, but actual bristles that flowed seamlessly from the hair on the side of my head to my chin. As you can imagine, this set me apart from the other 7th graders. I was awarded an air of wisdom and maturity that precedes my age, and teachers somehow attributed my academic aptitude to it. Over the five years of its existence, however, my beard has transformed vastly, and in every way, I have come out the better for it.
In my middle school days, fitting in was a priority. This was made difficult, but not solely
In Michael Byrne “The Deep Sadness of Elk That Don’t Run,” Michael talks about how the bourgeoisie want to create conformity and approval, but Michael writes “That these are the people that don’t succeed in groups…” (Byrne, Michael. The Deep Sadness of Elk That Don't Lie. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.) They are going as to get mindless conformity that they are training students to know how to fit in, in the excerpt by Susan Cain “The Power of introvert in the World That Can’t Stop Talking.” “Children’s classrooms are arranged in pods, because group participation supposedly leads to better learning; in one school I visited, a sign announcing “rules for group work”…” With this happening in schools around the United States, stigmas are thrown on kids
Is adolescence really about fitting in or not standing out? Do you have any responsibility to those students who do not fit in? Do you hear that? Hush, and listen closely. Do you hear it now? The cries for help of the kids who don’t fit in with the crowd. The cries aren’t always loud. Sometimes they don’t make a sound. Stop and listen to them. Take responsibility for those kids and stand up for those kids who won’t stand up for themselves.
Conformity means a change in one’s behavior due to the real or imagined influence of other people. As a teenager, the pressure to conform to the societal “norm” plays a major role in shaping one’s character. Whether this means doing what social groups want or expect you to do or changing who you are to fit in. During class, we watched films such as Mean Girls, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, and The Breakfast Club which demonstrate how the pressure to conform into society can change who you are. In the movies we have seen, conformity was most common during high school.
The beard, which was worn in full at the beginning of the twelfth century, was modified both as to shape and length. At first it was cut in a point, and only covered the end of the chin. But the next fashion was to wear it so as to join the moustaches. Generally moustaches went out of fashion. Beards were worn only by country people, who, desired to preserve a "remembrance of their participation in the Crusades." At the end of the twelfth century, all chins were shaved.
As an individual stuck amidst a foundation known for its propensity to breed social congruity, college has opened my eyes to numerous distinctive reasons why individuals decide to act in ways they wouldn't regularly act. Since they ordinarily aren't certain of their character, adolescents are more inclined to similarity than others. In the most essential structure, college is tormented with congruity through the generalizations that learners seek after and explore different avenues regarding trying to uncover their personality. There are two sorts of Conformity: the kind that makes you do your errands when your father authorizes you to, and the less than great kind in which you aimlessly take after the thoughts and tenets of an inner circle or gathering, without addressing the negative impacts it has upon yourself and the improvement of whatever remains of public opinion. Conformity is basic in that people strive for a feeling of strength and acknowledgement in their lives. As a result of this need, “we therefore figure out how to fit in with principles of other individuals. What's more the more we see others carrying on in a certain manner or settling on specific choices, the more we feel obliged to stick to this same pattern.” Despite the freedoms we are supposed to have in American society most adolescents find it difficult to have their own identity.
High school is a very transitory period for most teenagers. They are just beginning to discover who they are and what they care about in the world. Though within there are many battles for the individual, there also exist many social barriers. The "popular" crowd is generally full of the jocks. The boys who participate in sport every season: football, baseball and track, and the cheerleader girls who are petit in stature and care greatly about their outward appearance (I realize that this is quite a generalization, yet it has proven true in my experience). Somehow, it seems that these peoples' opinions always matter the most. They determine what is "in," they define "cool." Personally, I never was an active member of this crowd, though some close friends of mine were. My "group" of friends however, was fairly athletic. Practically every one of us participated in a sport, track, swimming, gymnastics, basketball, or soccer. One friend was always a bit different from the rest of the guys. While not feminine in his demeanor, he never distinguished himself as particularly "manly." For example, when one of the girls had to go to the locker room for some reason, she always asked Kawika if he wanted...
When life becomes overwhelming during adolescence, a child’s first response is to withdraw from the confinement of what is considered socially correct. Individuality then replaces the desire to meet social expectations, and thus the spiral into social non-conformity begins. During the course of Susanna’s high school career, she is different from the other kids. Susanna:
As someone relegated to the outer fringes of the social structure, I can attest to the oppressive nature of teen culture. It was a virtual prison, limiting those deemed unworthy of the ability to have pride in oneself, and to strive to be our best. Upon graduation, I distinctly remember the feeling that a black cloud had been lifted from me, my shackles were crushed. No longer subject to my lower-class position, I was free to be the master of my own domain. The funny thing is that our success in life did not seem to be affected by which group we were a part of in high school. If I could give a word of advice to someone being oppressed by rank in their school, I would tell them to work hard and have patience, the sweetest revenge is found in success.
Just like Richard Rodriguez one can have struggles with school and home, for instance at home one is taught to speak their mind, told that everyone will understand. At home formal does not exist; serious and organized is an option. Yet at school one must learn to think before speaking, to raise your hand and to make sure you sound just like everyone else. At school one is taught to not make a fool out of themselves, to be serious and formal to be just like everybody else. But yet again as a student, although one has been taught to be like everyone else, one can still feel like an outsider, like Rodriguez describes you still don’t fit in. As a student one must learn the difference between formal and informal and when to use both, for some students like me formal and serious might be the only way to socialize. And just like Rodriguez one
If you were to walk into a high school lunchroom, what is the first thing you would see? Groups, cliques, friend circles, and separations. Tables split up in detached formations, almost completely unaware of the other surrounding pupils nearby. The most common groups in high school are the populars and the outcasts. The kids who have endless friends, engage in team sports, and meet the ideal teenage standards, against the ones who are quiet, solitary, and unconventional. The ones that are outcasts fall into the second description. They don’t line up with society's norms therefore, they tend to be looked upon as bizarre and atypical. Outsiders are too often misjudged and misunderstood
There is effective usage of symbols in the story. Symbols are used to represent various things. For instance Blue Ballard himself is a symbol representing evil, oppressive and misunderstanding men in the contemporary society. This is justified by the action of murderinghis wives and not showing any guilt feeling concerning the issue. His wife is also a symbol representing the reactive women in the society who are out to ensure a transformation regarding the place of women in the society and in their marriages (Stith,1977).
Teachers and peers Teachers played a huge role in my development because I started preschool at the age of two, so I spent a lot of time in some sort of classroom setting and interacted with the teachers. When I was younger a lot of times I preferred to be around the teachers, mostly because being an only child at the time, that was all I was used to. There were times when I did interact with my peers. Most of the time I spent was with my cousin because we had the same class. Once I was old enough to start kindergarten I was confident that it was going to be a cake walk. I met a group of friends and was excelling in class. However, my friends and I had a very hard time getting along, so we were later separated. Throughout my childhood I recall bouncing between several different types of friend groups, from the “cool clique”, to the
Growing up, I always felt out of place. When everyone else was running around in the hot, sun, thinking of nothing, but the logistics of the game they were playing. I would be sat on the curb, wondering what it was that made them so much different from me. To me, it was if they all knew something that I didn’t know, like they were all apart of some inside joke that I just didn’t get. I would sit, each day when my mind wasn’t being filled with the incessant chatter of my teachers mindlessly sharing what they were told to, in the hot, humid air of the late spring and wonder what I was doing wrong. See, my discontent
In public schools, students are faced with the different groups among their peers. The popular group is most favored, which probably means that you go to school in the latest fashion, you are the team captain or captain of the cheerleading squad. If you are a “geek”, you are probably made fun of because you are smart and get good grades instead of spending the morning caring about how you look. If you a...
It’s hard for people to fit in when others can’t accept you. Everyone wants to be accepted and be a part of the ‘in-crowd’, but just because you’re a little different, people may stop liking you. People should embrace their differences, “Instead they’re creating this divided environment where they’re showing all these children that a child is different and we’re going to treat them po...