...Is There A Typical American Teenager? I loved high school. I really did. I loved the football games, the dances, the people (sometimes), the clubs, my teachers, my friends, the list goes on. I probably liked high school more than a teenager usually does (I wasn't as eager to leave at graduation time as everyone else seemed to be). Throughout high school, judging by myself and all of my dynamic peers, it never once occurred to me who was 'typical" and who was not. However even at nineteen, my perception of a "typical" American teenager is the same as it was when I was seventeen: angst-y, dramatic, gossipy, party-hungry, and sexual. So if I was still in high school and had the same image of a "typical" teen as I do now, yet no one around me really embodied it, why did I have that image? Stereotypes. It is because of stereotypes that adults, and yes, even teenagers believe that said traits are what the typical American teenager embodies. There are stereotypes that classify 'cliques' in high school, and imply that all schools have cliques, but the main stereotype of "typical" teens seems to be one that groups all teens together under a view similar to mine of a "typical" teenager. These stereotypes are perpetuated mainly through media: movies, books, songs, and even news. They paint a picture of a teen who is, in my opinion after my own experiences and especially after watching American Teen, not very accurate. Having been an American teen, and being around them for so many years...
Words: 593 - Pages: 3
...In Steele’s In the Air Between Us, he argues that stereotype threats make students underperform, no matter who they are. However, it is the students who take their schooling seriously who are the most affected. Also, the stereotype threat is not only towards minorities. These studies should lead us to reevaluate how we test our students to ensure they are not underperforming because of preconceived beliefs that they are not good enough. These studies also have implications for why the country’s most underperforming students do not have high test scores. This issue of stereotype threat is something that needs more attention to be brought to it. When students, even some of the best ones, are underperforming simply because society has taught them...
Words: 610 - Pages: 3
...Stereotypes (of Muslims), Causes, Consequences and Solutions It is extremely important for People to feel safe and be included in their environments in order to maintain a decent life. Stereotypes against Muslims in America can lead to fear and isolation among Muslim people and prejudices against Muslims can affect the quality of the life of Muslims in America. The following excerpt is taken from an interview with Fatima, a female Muslim worshipper after the Friday prayer. “Because I wear the head scarf I usually get the hateful stares. I just cannot stand that. I fear for my life. Muslims are harassed and targeted. I know that many Americans hate Muslims and Muslims are the victims of hate crimes. I am afraid if America get too paranoid...
Words: 1881 - Pages: 8
...Feature Hendrix Prof. Ziegler English 1121-01 Argumentative Research Essay Sixty-six percent of people on (Debate.org) said that reality television should be ban. It brings out the bad stereotypes in people (Kenya). People’s personal life are being taped on a daily basis. It can ruin culture image or a person’s life. Young teens are out of control, and are portrayed as loudmouth who only care about themselves. different stereotypes are shown about gender. There are many stereotypes in reality television. Reality television is promoting dangerous stereotypes in our society, culture, teens, race, and male and female. Reality television have damaged my home and even my sisters are falling into the messages they are sending. Should reality television be ban like some television shows? Government officials have banned some of South Park and family Guy episodes. So why can’t they ban reality television shows or ban some of them to aired? It does not teach anything useful. People become addicted to it very often. Anything excessive is not reality. In reality, people do not slum around the pool all day getting wasted. Reality does not consist of girls having make up on every hour of the day. In reality, people go to work, and spouses don’t sit around the house all day gossiping about their friend’s life or what is happening in another city. People on reality shows need to grow up and get a job. They need to stop relying on others to support them because that is all reality producer...
Words: 2241 - Pages: 9
...The dominant image of Asian Americans as high achievers can be traced back to 1966 when Time Magazine (Peterson, 1960) and U.S. News and World Report (1966) reported on the ability of Japanese- and Chinese-Americans to achieve success in the face of the same adversities declared by proponents of the civil rights movement (Tran and Birman 2010). Direct experiences are pervasive, with research showing that over 99 % of Asian American adolescents have had at least one encounter in which they felt like they were being stereotyped as a model minority (Thompson and Kiang 2010). Yet, despite its prevalence and commonality, the developmental implications of the model minority stereotype are not well-understood. Most of the existing research has been...
Words: 1584 - Pages: 7
...2016-02-10 The Cons of Single Gender Schools Single gender schools are a bad idea for an educational system because they don’t prepare their students with the necessary skills to be thoroughly ready to face the world after high school. In any educational institution, we are expected to learn some of the most crucial skills needed to survive in a world where its important to know how to strive for success and the different ways you can do it. Some of these skills we acquire them on our own, however some of them we learn by being exposed to different situations or we learn them in school which is the place where we are prepared for what’s to come after high school. Now, single gender schools do not fully fulfill this demand as they do not have the same advantages coed schools may have. Correspondingly, single gender schools do not prepare their students to interact with the opposite sex which is something they will need as they will not always be around the same gender. Aside from that, specific genders are not exposed to the different ways of learning that one must know in order to succeed in the later stages of life. But also, the outside world is a rough place for individuals who are not realistic of the misconceptions of the opposite gender and the stereotypes that go accordingly to their sex, and its important to be aware of them, as it builds your confidence and you are more knowledgeable. Furthermore, this essay will prove that single gender schools do not prepare their students...
Words: 1536 - Pages: 7
...opposite sex. Same sex classrooms are not beneficial, therefore American schools should not create same sex classrooms because they promote poor social skills, cause gender stereotypes, and high tutions. Having same sex classes protes poor social skills with the opposite...
Words: 871 - Pages: 4
...How can we close the Achievement Gap? When we are thinking about our school system it isn’t difficult to think about different gaps, which we should reach. Gaps that we should break down to get a stronger education system, with better qualified teachers, which can lead our students to a grounded education. In the education system you can find negative stereotypes, which make the way for success for students even more difficult. Stereotypes can effect students in their personal goals but also make them feel less valued. Also, bad teachers in the school system aren’t making things better, which get protected from unions, but on the other hand teachers have no freedom. To find a way out of this dilemma between negative effected students and unsatisfied teachers who lose all kind of motivation, we should encourage students and teachers in their work away from unions, so that we can to attend our achievement gaps as soon as possible. Stereotypes are everywhere in our society, also in our schools. Although stereotypes can help students to do better in certain materials, stereotypes affect students and perpetuate and exacerbate gaps. Students who are in a negatively stereotyped group often underperform because of the pressure and worry they get in qualifying exams and aptitude tests in math, and these intensifies worries. According to Rodolfo Mendoza-Denton, the author of “ Framed!” “Notions about innate ability don’t just hinder the performance of negative stereotyped...
Words: 1399 - Pages: 6
...the teacher, or the student? Last year, Hispanic and African American high school students scored at substantially lower rates than Asian and White students on the ACT. For example, the score of White graduates who were college ready in English at 77%, was twice that of African American students 35% (Snyder). Unfortunately, evidence of such academic achievement gaps—as measured by College Readiness Benchmarks—is...
Words: 623 - Pages: 3
...Gaby Rodriguez was a senior in high school and all was going well, she was smart, pretty, had a boyfriend, all was good. All was good but one thing, a stereotype. This stereotype was she was bound to be pregnant before she was out of high school, just like her mother, sisters, and her brother getting a girl pregnant before they were out of high school. “People always seemed to expect that I'd follow the same path just because I'm Latina and a part of this family” (Rodriguez). All things Gaby wanted to prove wrong, but things don’t go as planned. After thinking about it Gaby realized that this is not all a bad thing and she wanted to challenge the idea that a stereotype has to define your future or if it does not. So Gaby wanted to do something to define that stereotype and faked a pregnancy for her senior project....
Words: 669 - Pages: 3
...A stereotype is an idea or image overused on a person or thing. We tend to start stereotyping at a young age which is extremely problematic. It may be a positive or negative stereotype, but stereotypes in general do no good besides teaching children that labeling based on race,religion, and/or appearance is okay. These stereotypes affect how we treat other people and how people treat you. I've never suffered like African Americans or poor people do with stereotyping, so i've never truly been affected by stereotypes. I'm a typical white girl living in the suburbs. I'm not the skinniest, I wear the same few black outfits everyday because i dont have the confidence to wear anything else. People stereotype me as to lazy to wear anything else and are standoffish to talk to me because they think i will mean due to my RBF. But what I went through was nothing my friend ilana had to go through. Ilana was a 15 year old girl who moved from Dubai, United Arab Emirates to Cedar Park, Texas as a new incoming Freshman. Her ethnicity is Afrikaans, which is a White South...
Words: 707 - Pages: 3
...I lived in United States for 5 years including this year. There was sometimes I thought about what is it like to be Asian, because some people have strong stereotypes about us. For example, they think all Asians will be good at math, and will like Chinese foods. Some people don’t know that Samsung is Korean company. According to scholarly article The model minority and the perpetual foreigner: Stereotypes of Asian Americans, The two most significant and persistent stereotypes of Asian Americans are the "model minority" stereotype and the stereotype that Asian Americans are perpetual foreigners (Lee, Wong, Alvarez, n.p). Moreover, according to Stereotypes of Asian American Students, high- and low-achieving Asian American students experience anxiety to uphold expectations of the model minority stereotype (Kim, Angela, Christine J, n.p). We as Asians often feel like we are foreigners though we live here and we go to school here, because there are lots of stereotypes about us. In our Korean school, we not only teach Korean language itself, but also teach Korean culture and history. Our instructor and we try hard to give accurate information and cultural experiences to students by researching different sources and historical figures. Teaching them about us will help them reducing the stereotypes. However, this might night change the whole society with this social issue. We again think it is one small step to help solving the social...
Words: 1637 - Pages: 7
...While stereotypes can hurt, in my experience mine has helped to shape my character. To give some background, I went to a middle school where minorities were the majority. Meaning that, my school was primarily Hispanics and African American. However, I am of Swedish decent, which is primarily characterized by bright blonde hair and blue eyes. Obviously, I stuck out in a way middle schooler, whose only desire is to fit in, didn’t want to stick out. The ditzy blonde stereotype was in full swing at this point with celebrities, movies and TV shows further perpetrating the stereotype. At school, my peers and teachers alike would insult my intelligence. It seemed as though whatever I accomplished, my hair color was the determining factor in how intelligent...
Words: 439 - Pages: 2
...In the world we live in today people are judged by their gender everyday, which affects their performance in their everyday life. Although any sex can be a victim of gender stereotypes, the main gender type that is targeted negatively are females because they are considered to be “delicate” and “weak, while men are seen as more “bold” and “strong”. As a result of this, the question that will be focused on is “why do gender stereotypes affect the performance of individuals?”. Gender stereotypes can affect a person's ability to do things to their full potential such as education, competing in sports, or even something as small as playing video games. One reason why gender stereotypes affect the performance of individuals is because of the pressure...
Words: 1601 - Pages: 7
...DO STEREOTYPES EVER CHANGE? Many theorists have suggested that stereotyping will be stable as long as the nature of relationship that exists between our group and the stereotyped group is stable (Eagly 1987, Oakes et al., 1994; Tajfel,1981). That is because we construct stereotypes that reflect how we see members of different groups actually behaving, stereotype change should only occur when the relations between the groups change. In addition we generally hold stereotypes that are favorable to our own group in comparison to another group. Unless social conditions shift so that we no longer see in-group favoritism as acceptable, unfavorable stereotypes of groups we are not members of, can be expected to persist. (Spears, Jetten , & Doosje,...
Words: 1758 - Pages: 8
