Prompt:

Based on your observations, course readings, conversations with your mentor and the class discussions, prioritize the Basic Needs of Adolescents (Handout).  Briefly (50-75 words) describe your rationale for the order of each “Need.” Pay special attention to how the environment is set up to support student achievement as discussed in Vatterott’s chapter 4.  Provide a digital image of how this “Need” is being met in the field (or not being meet).

Response:

Young people have a great variety of needs not only in their home environment but also in the classroom. Typically educators classify those needs into seven categories including: positive social interaction with adults and peers, structure and clear limits, competence and achievement, creative expression, physical activity, meaningful participation in their families, schools and communities, and finally self definition. Some might claim that each of these categories has varying importance, but in my opinion their order of importance fluctuates with each child. In other words some children may have a stronger pull to meet specific needs based on their personal development.

It is difficult to rank the seven from most important to least important because each child is different. I think it is unfair to pigeonhole one student who has a particularly strong need to develop positive interaction with adults and peers by placing focus solely on that area, instead of also promoting physical activity because it has been identified as a “less important” need. Intrinsic to themselves, needs are needs and they need to be met. In this example, it would easily be possible to promote positive social interaction with adults and peers through physical activity, successfully meeting both needs.

In this manner, I would argue each of the needs are interdependent upon one another and after self definition, educators have an equal responsibility to meet each need. By successful instruction and school design, educators can promote all of these needs in an integrated fashion and create a successful self-defined student. This is in direct accordance to Wood’s ideas of defining what type of student the school system wishes to develop and then designing the school around promoting those ideas. Wood surmises through identifying the needs of students and meeting each need by adjusting school structure and curriculum, schools can appropriately produce students who are better members of a community as well as invested critical thinkers.

Now if I were to classify one need as most important to all children in the school environment, I would choose self definition. Through the development of self definition a student can then participate positively with adults and peers, recognize structure and limits, be competent and have achievements, participate meaningfully in the community, have creative expression, and be physically active. By helping a student to find school related interests and talents, teachers are setting them up to be more invested in school and therefore more successful, an idea that parallels what we have discussed in class and through our readings in Vatterott. In my opinion each of the six developmental needs, subsequent to self definition, are equally important because they promote a balanced and mature individual.

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