L07: Cultural and Psychology

Prof. Ivers talked about how cultures create the "Ought self" and how this influence the "Real self." The relationship between this two concepts will play a significant role in the most important aspect of our student's opportunity to succeed: Self-esteem.

I think that the what is not what makes you sick sometimes, but rather the how. How can I be or have...? So our mental health depends on the things that we are after.
One of the most stressful times of my life happened right after my mission.
Being LDS, my well-intentioned leaders, reminded me every Sunday that what was next for me now was to find a good LDS girl and get married. The how was killing me.
So, while my understanding LDS culture, in the end, brought me joy, the pressure of family, and friends, to be or to have certain things or to fit specific criteria that come from living where you live or by being part of a specific group,  can be overwhelming.

This is a pressure felt by many in the same situation, and for some is just one more thing on our to-do-list, but there are those who feel in the middle of a cultural dilemma.

In the LDS culture starting a family is paramount to progress, while outside people perceive this notion as mistaken, to them a good education and temporal accomplishments should be reached by individuals long before tiding the knot. These two ideas can exert a great weight on the minds of young people sometimes.

The Church can not feel or should be held responsible for every ill interpreted commandment, or instruction received by any members, and yet I feel that all of us in each ward worldwide understand that at a certain age there are things expected from us.

The only way I've found to cope with this anxieties is to try to develop a healthy dose of patience.

Albert Einstein said: “Everyone is a genius, but if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it's stupid.” We might not all be borne to be Einsteins but that is a great thing. Can you imagine if Einstein would have tried to pursue a career in Futbol or rock climbing? Chances are, you are the Einstein of your own life.

A classroom might present many challenging personalities, but student share the most important thing, they want to do better.
What each of them considers progress might differ from one another, and their expectancies may vary, so I think a teacher should be ready to help students to set their goals and to work towards them with a healthy dose of patience.

Patience is what calms the nerves when things don't happen according to what is expected from us, and tells us that, sometimes, we need to change the speed but not the destination to achieve the best version of ourselves.