Unreachable
Self-Expectations: What Is Going On In Our Society
Regarding Young Adolescents (Commentary on
Dillon, 2012)
Sara
Chaves Federal University of Bahia, Brazil
pp. 45-48
ABSTRACT: The article
“Email as an arena for self-construction among
gifted young adolescents: A qualitative study”
(Dillon, 2012) is an invitation to reflect upon
the meanings and types of values behind the
perception of what it is to be successful, what
it means to be worthy in a society. Even though
the article’s main purpose is to “gain insights
through examining the emergence of a diverse
array of ‘self’ voices”, it goes beyond by
bringing to reader closer to a reflection upon
what do youngsters think they are expected to
do. It is possible to observe in the
participants’ narratives what motivations drive
them to their quotidian activities, especially
those regarding school. Their perception of
success and failure is deeply embedded and
intertwined in the understanding present in
their cultural context of what it is to be good
and successful. Not only is the acceleration of
accomplishments present as a demand for success,
but also the absence of mistakes. Maybe this is
an excessively heavy burden to carry, the burden
to always be perfect, flawless, exemplary, even
though it seems to be what youngsters hold in
the contemporary days.