About one second after the apple hit the
wall, the cafeteria aide pulled him by the arm screaming that she'd really had
enough of this table's crap this year!, and that he'd be lucky if he'd get to
have lunch in the cafeteria for the rest of the year. Meanwhile, just about all
the cafeteria was cheering for him, but he did not seem so happy. There are
adolescents that act out with such behavior without apparent pier pressure.
Teenagers may act out rebelliously for a number of reasons, but mainly it's an
act of attention. A student I noticed rebelling against authority was in the
classroom. It was during an English class, the teacher asked students to hand in
the homework assignment, then gave students an in-class reading assignment. A
student I'll call Tom, began to start conversation with the student next to him.
The teacher asked him to be quiet and start the reading. Tom then told the
teacher that he forgot his text book. The teacher looked at him in a way that
made me think that this wasn't the first time Tom forgot his book. The teacher
then asked him if he turned in his assignment, and Tom replied no. Then the
teacher asked him if he speak to him outside. A couple of minuets later they
returned, and the teacher handed him a textbook. Tom then began to rap a song
and keep beat to the music by playing his desk. The teacher once more asked to
see Tom outside, only this time in a lot more serious tone. Tom then muttered,
This is bull*censored*, and pushed his borrowed textbook from the desk, pushed
his desk and several others desks on his way out. I herd the teacher and Tom
arguing then Tom came in, grabbed his notebook and was sent off to the
principle. Adolescent egocentrisim is defined as the inability for teenagers to
differentiate between what is important to themselves and what is important to
others. Two boys sitting in front of me were preparing to take a test. The one
boy said Damn, I died on that last test, if I fail this one I swear my father is
going to beat my ass. The other boy said, God, don't I know it, I bombed the
last one The first boy then said, No dude, you don't know. What are you sayin',
I did just as bad on that test. The first boy then raised his voice and said, No
man, you just don't get it- I can't fail. I chose one girl and one boy to
observe closely for thirty minutes. The girl I chose I noticed right away. She
was sitting in the cafeteria alone. She had long brown hair and was wearing
jeans and a t-shirt. She was an average looking girl and looked as if she may
felt a little awkward. For the first fifteen minuets of lunch she flipped
endlessly through her binder, and occasionally took out a piece of paper to
read, or to draw on.
She never lifted her head up to look around the cafeteria,
or to make any eye contact with anyone for that matter. It was at this point
that I noticed that this girl didn't have a lunch with her and never even got up
to go get a lunch. I really felt bad for her, she didn't seem to be very happy
or comfortable so I don't think that she was alone by choice. I wanted to go
over and say hi to her by the end of the period, but I never did. About five
minutes before the end of lunch this girl got up from her seat and went to wait
by the cafeteria door, and as soon as the cafeteria aide would let her, she
left. Many of the other kids were slow to leave and often had to be told a few
times to get up from their tables. The boy I observed was recommended to me by
the principle himself. This being because the principle felt this student
reminded him of me when I was fourteen. I arrived to the classroom before any of
the students had and the principle re-introduced to an English teacher I once
had. He told me the students name and where he sat in the class. When the
students finally entered, the teacher told them that I was a student aide and
not to mind me. Within seconds of seeing this boy I realized why he was
recommended. He was in the obvious popular crowd, although he did have a certain
identity of his own. While his friends were talking aimlessly among their own clicuqe, he talked to not only his clicque but outsiders as well. Another key
observation was that he made eye contact with everyone he spoke with whereas his
peers were much more easily distracted in conversation. He carried himself in a
maturelike fashion as well. He wasn't loud, or needing to be the center of
attention, although conversation was often directed his was. But despite this
mature demeanor, he still had the Notorious adolescent vocabulary. When the
teacher asked for silence, he responded, whereas a few of his friends still
wanted to continue conversation. One situation that was particularly notable was
when the students were assigned to depict parts of the sentence structure on the
board. Many of his friends joked around when they were in front of the class and
had to be told to focus on the task, whereas he went straight to work when his
turn was called. Another thing worth mentioning was that when a not-so-popular
student was called to the board, many of my subjects friends were quick to make
fun, and he didn't take part. I am not going to say that he told them to
shut-up, or anything near as admirable, but during a time when conformity is
very important, this boy took a very passive approach. Of the two subjects that
I studied I noted that both had characteristics of the normal adolescent,
although in very different ways.
