chatper 15 and success

Chapter 15

My partner and I ended up not debating the issues as separate sides, but together generated the arguments for both because we both fell more in the middle. For us, the question about college or not has a lot of nuance because of how people define college or what they don’t include in the definition of college. I found it helpful that we identified major issues such as finance, developmental point of the individual, and programs provided.  I don’t think everyone should go to college, but I think it is up to the individual to decide, not the system. I am personally an advocate for taking productive time off before college.  If I were working with high school seniors and one wanted to take some time off before college, I encourage them to apply to college, and simply defer for a year.  This will help ease the problem of not ever getting around to college, because they already applied with other seniors; however, it allows them a year to explore, try a business, AmeriCorps, or other experiences before college.  

After the discussion, I agree that success SHOULD be defined individually; however, society and families can put  a lot of pressure on for a certain kind of success. It may cause some mental distress when someone does not live up to what they perceive to be the societal measure of success, or when trying to reconcile their personal definition of success and the broader definition of success. All of us, as future counselors, could have a client struggling with the idea of success, and the class activity helped me to understand the various dimensions and factors in defining success.

I found Chapter 15 interesting, I did not know some of those programs really existed. I am interested to know more numbers and industries companies who have these types of program.  My grandmother told me that the school district she worked for in Tempe, Arizona gave teachers an aptitude test to see how they should move forward in her career.  She never thought she wanted to be a principal; however, she scored extremely high.  She tells this story because she was the only woman in her Masters Degree Program and a lot of the professors thought she shouldn’t be there.  Once she pointed out that she scored higher on the test than all of the other men in the program on that test, the professors stopped openly hassling her.  I have not heard of any other school districts which systematically evaluate and test their teachers for future roles in administration.