Erickson’s View of Development, Essay Example

According to Erikson, human personality builds up through a prearranged sequence of eight steps. The question posed is extremely difficult for me because I do not remember a great deal of my childhood (Boeree, 2010). As Erikson’s view is based on a succession of events I can only relate to some not all stages. I do not feel there was a sense of encouragement for me and cannot recall how I viewed other children in my early years. My father pleaded with the school to hold me back and they never did. I often felt like the problem passed on to the next teacher. Although the school never held me back they did nothing to help me overcome my issues. However, I did receive the encouragement from my father. Unfortunately, he worked a great deal of hours while I was growing up, which left me to fend for myself most of the time. Even after escaping the abuse from my stepfather and falling into my own self worth. I found it very hard to become accepted by the teachers. I went from D’s to strait A’s and they felt I was some how cheating. I was undeniably wild and involved in drugs at very young age. When I decided to quit all of my unfavorable activities it was hard to remove my “black sheep” brand I had placed on myself. I had worked twice as hard for an A because of my lack of education and faced skepticism the whole way.

I felt that the teachers saw my lack of education and assumed that I was not intelligent. If it were not for my father telling me that there is a difference I am not sure I would have ever bothered trying to become educated. His encouragement empowered me to advance through each step. My failures were obsolete to him and he influenced me to charge after each of the preceding stages (Child Development Institute). I feel that teachers are under paid and over worked. There are simply many children in a classroom for teachers to provide proper education. There are too many laws dictating to teachers what curriculum and testing that needs to be complete. Individual attention is not conducive if you have to push each child a head regardless of the child’s actual school based knowledge. Some technical or vocational programs do provide outreach but they seldom required the same level of competence out of the student.

Work Cited

Child Development Institute. Stages of Social-Emotional Development in Children and Teenagers. Retrieved April 12, 2010, from http://www.childdevelopmentinfo.com/development/erickson.shtml

Boeree, C. G. Personality Theories. Retrieved April 12, 2010. From http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/erikson.htm

Stephanie, Cravens. The development in Children. London: The Hogarth Press. ((1992).

Maurice, Sortelio. The Scientific Intervention on the children development. South Africa:  Longhorn Press. (2001).