Coocoocachoo

These articles complemented each other well and presented a fair picture of the research that was involved. Of course, the findings are the most interesting part. I was not surprised by the results of this study. Other blogs confirm that many of us had similar experiences in school and are able to identify these types of students quite simply. Being quite young myself, my memories are quite near. The pseudo-mature behavior’s manifestation in the early college years have been a pet peeve of mine since I began college. What isn’t cool about  getting drunk in Cutler before breakfast on a Sunday and screaming “RALLY BRUH!” in the ears of your hungover friends (sarcasm based on an anecdotal event relayed to me by peers). There was one particular point in the NYT article that I thought was worth pulling out. The author warns parents not to worry if their child isn’t “popular” and instead has a few close friends. This lesson suggests that the pseudo-mature students were likely praised for the behavior that wasn’t getting them in trouble, thus enabling and encouraging the behavior. I think that might be part of the reason that “popular” people start to look foolish  once you remove them from their context. As teachers, I think that we can take away from this article the lesson that we should encourage students to express their individuality and to guide them towards making mature decisions that will foster healthy relationships and habits that will be truly useful to them later in life.