The Value of Identity

No two people have the same identity. Every person has a separate set of experiences. People mold and shape to what goes on around them and react to these events. Building your personality is something you will do for your whole life and is a constant occupation. There are many origins of an identity, My Life as a Dog, “Five Kinds of Self-knowledge” by Ulric Neisser, and “Love and Need” by Thomas Merton look deeper into identity to see what creates and effects it. These pieces of literature all support the idea that one's environment and self choice influence who you are. Many things go into the development of a person’s identity, but nothing is more important than the experiences that come from

On October 26th I observed at Park Elementary in Munhall, Pa. The school is from kindergarten to 4th grade. Park Elementary was the same Elementary school I attended and the second-grade classroom I chose to observe was the same classroom that I sat in ten years ago taught by the same teacher. I chose to observe Park Elementary because the school and the teachers are who inspired me to become an elementary school teacher. The classroom was very colorful and organized. The walls were covered with decorations such as calendars, months, star student, alphabet, and number lines. The lesson I observed was a second-grade mathematics lesson and language arts. Classroom sizes are 25-30 students per classroom. The lesson was making numbers using ones, tens and

Moreover, to this day, as you plant your eyes on this page, I never understood Mrs. Dickerson’s rationale to physically penalize her entire class due to one student’s dopey

While observing my second five hours, the classroom does not always run smoothly, 2ND grade students may not always see eye to eye. After finishing their math lesson for the day and putting away their materials and getting ready for math, Mrs. Ryan asked three students to please collect their whiteboards from their group and put them back where they belong. As each student did as they were told to do so, a boy placed the whiteboards how he thought they should look. However, a girl walked over with her groups and corrected the way they were. He yelled at the girl and told her to sit down and get away from the boards. She ran away in tears and sat down at her desk. As Mrs. Ryan realized what was happening she took order of her classroom and pulled

Smart wants to say that sensation1 = brainprocess1, however the objection is that sensation1 is epistemologically different from brainprocess1 because sensation1 has a phenomenal property to it that seems to be distinct from brainprocess1. There is something to the phenomenal properties of sensations that disables an identity theorist from capturing these sensations. It seems like brain processes are not quite understood yet and sensations are epistemologically inaccessible making identity theory intractable until these phenomena are understood. Consider, for example, looking at something red. It is subjective because the sensation of seeing a red apple is necessarily different from a friend’s sensation of seeing a red apple. One can even authoritatively

In the trials of time, people have lost their sense of identity and lost their place in society. There are always struggles within the community, but very few times is it enough to drive someone to feel like they didn’t have a home with their family. Although, throughout the majority of the book, Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, Nwoye didn’t have a sense of identity. But, this changed with the collision of the Ibo tribe and Europeans. Once this mash up occurred, he found himself and who he was supposed to be, he found purpose in life, he found a new family.

Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow emphasizes the difference between identity and status in and outside of society by using the characters’ pursuit of self within the novel. Coalhouse Walker is the main representation of how a character’s identity is indefinitely shaped by his choices and can lead to various consequences. As Coalhouse’s personality subtly changes into a new persona, the reader slowly realizes the drastic importance of choices and perception. Through his portrayal of Coalhouse, Doctorow conveys that while identity is partly based upon an individual’s choices, society’s perception of an individual dictates his perceived identity and status despite the differing views of the individual himself.

For my assignment, I observed a 5th grade classroom at a Title 1 Elementary School. It was 1:30 pm. on a Thursday in mid-September, and they had just come back inside from recess. There were 21 students in the class. Classroom rules and expectations were clearly displayed inside the doorway. The students’ desks were arranged in clusters of 4. Some children, seemingly those with behavioral issues, were isolated and sat at single desks located at the back of the room. Students were scrambling around to grab their white board and markers and get ready for their math lesson. The teacher gave them a countdown to get settled down and back to their desks. The students had been learning how to add and subtract with decimals. She made them aware that this math lesson was going to be a continuation of that, but this time with money. The students seemed to be excited about that. The teacher turned on an overhead, where she had several word problems. She read one problem at a time aloud. A timer was set for the students to work their problem out on their white board. When the timer sounded, the students all raised their white board to display their answer to the teacher. The teacher provided the correct answer and called on one student to explain how to solve the problem. She reminded the rest of the class to pay attention to the student so that they can understand how to work the problem. Most students were respectful and listened.

My mother immigrated to Chicago with little money. She went outside her comfort zone so that she could work towards a better life than she had in China. She initially worked as a waitress full time in the United States and put herself through school while raising my younger sister and me. There were many obstacles in her road to get to where she is now, such as fatigue from her numerous responsibilities or the various times we lost our family savings from my father’s gambling addiction. By observing my mother’s experiences immigrating to the United States, I learned to never be afraid of pushing yourself outside of your comfort and to embrace new challenges.

What makes you different from anyone else in this world? What defines you and your personality and what makes you an individual among society? Ancient philosophers of Greece, Rome, and China to modern scholars have contemplated what contributes to one’s identity. Everyone is a product of both their environment, and experiences, and modern text as well as podcasts demonstrate this concept. Memories and experiences influence how people behave and act; however, individuals have limited control of their family, environment and actions of others.

I have spent twenty hours throughout this semester observing a first grade classroom at P.S 152; Gwendolyn Alleyne Elementary School located in Woodside, NY. On October 23rd, Friday, I had the opportunity observing a math class. The teacher allowed me to observe her math Class, which meets Monday through Friday from 12:45 pm-2:15 pm. I did not have any prior direct experience in the math classroom, so this was relatively a new learning experience.

During field, I am in a third grade classroom at Primos Elementary School in Upper Darby, PA. To maintain confidentiality as I write about my field experience, I will be using pseudo-names for the teacher and children mentioned. My field teacher is Mrs. Williams, and her classroom is home to about eighteen to twenty diverse third grades in terms of socioeconomic status, race, and ethnicity. When I am in the classroom, I am fortunate to see the children’s unpacking routine as they enter the classroom which consist of removing necessary materials from their backpacks, taking down their chairs from their desks, and for some students, eating breakfast which they paid for through the school. After the students’ finish unpacking, Mrs. Williams tries to implement a form of morning meeting, although she cannot always do so depending on the behaviors of her students. Typically, however, she finds just enough time to go over news and announcements with her class. After morning meeting, the students have math instruction from 9:15 am until 10:25 am. After math, her students go to their specials class, and then off to lunch. In this paper, I will be analyzing one of Mrs. Williams math lessons, to see if her lesson meets the elements of a lesson.

Classroom 1: I observed in Ms. Hills’ class for the majority of the school day on both September 15th and October 6th.Ms. Hill was the schools’ math resource teacher. Ms. Hill had 3 time blocks for teaching and 1 time block for planning throughout both times I observed. Block 1 on both days, had five students in attendance. Block 2 for Mrs. Hill, had six students on September 15th and 8 students on October 6th. Block 3 for Mrs. Hill had 10 students on September 15th and 8 students on October 6th. In all blocks, there was a mix of 6-8th graders who were students with specific learning disabilities, intellectual disabilities, ADHD, and behavioral disorders.

Throughout history, one important question has stood out to us as a species: what defines us? What makes a person who they are? Is it the way we look or act, or even what we eat? Andy Hinds, author of his own blog Beta Dad and contributor to the New York Times blog Motherlode categorizes his identity not by what he eats or wears, but by his differences from societal norms, namely his disinterest in sports. Likewise, Larry Lehna, University of Michigan-Dearborn graduate and accomplished author of an autobiography, uses his experiences after getting out of prison to portray how the change his environment and the views of others affected who he was. In a similar way, Dana Canedy, author of A Journal for Jordan; A Story of Love and Honor and editor at the New York Times, attempts to explain to her son the importance of embracing his culture and the dangers of rejecting it. These authors display the universal truth that identity is shaped by societal views, environment, and family history.

In the book Letters from Young Activists, one of the letters by Guadalupe Salcedo, she says “[I]f I hadn’t struggled through my own process of reflection and growth in regards to my identity, I don’t think I would have learned so much about the world and why people are not only against similar issues but creating bridges between communities to overcome them” (86). The quote resonates so much with me because of my early stage as a developing young man who wants to be a positive addition to society. I am here at Brandeis University, an institution that wants to shape my form of thinking and provide me with innovative and useful skills for a future that I very much ignore at the moment, but that I am envisioning. The way I can envision is looking at what I think is wrong in the world, questioning how can I be part of the force that change the thing that is deemed as “wrong,” and how does my identity fit in all this?