EDTP 635
Adolescent Development and Learning Needs
University of Maryland, University College
Teen Culture
The teen culture represented in Remember the Titans centers around the members of the football team, who begin as two distinct entities and merge into a unified group. The actions and behaviors of this team are consistent with what is known about adolescent development and teen culture: the emphasis on peer groups in socialization, a burgeoning sexual identity, and an exploration of roles and other identities.
Peer groups are especially important in social issues such as dress, hairstyle, speech patterns, friendships, and leisure activities. There are scenes where the players are learning each others’ jokes and speech patterns in order to have more in common—for instance, the “your mama” jokes they tell in the locker room. It is important to the players that they spend time with each other celebrating after the games, go out to eat together, and so forth. We see very little of their parents—not because their parents are absent, but because their social lives revolve around the peer group.
By late adolescence, most teens have reached physical maturity and many become sexually active (Snowman & McCown, 2015, p. 101). The players on the Titans—Gerry and Julius, in particular—are clearly interested in dating and girls. They are beginning to balance their romantic interests with their peer group responsibilities. Also, ‘Sunshine’ seems to be exploring his sexual orientation, which is a part of adolescent culture.
The players of the Titans are caught between asserting their burgeoning independence and responding to authority. Gerry Bertier, as the team captain, begins the movie as a follower. His coach puts him in his place, makes him call him “Daddy.” However, as Gerry demonstrates a commitment to the team, he takes on a greater role in the leadership of the team. This type of growth is what Erik Erikson would describe Identity versus Role Confusion. By developing his leadership on the team, adolescents like Gary are preparing “to take a meaningful place in society,” taking on the roles and learning the skills they will need to become adults (Snowman & McCown, 2015, p. 30).
Ethics
The film signifies a significant shift in the leading characters’ moral development. The challenge of integration forces the white characters into crisis, causing them to examine their personal morals and ethics in relation to their larger society. The sense of crisis at the integration of their schools allows the white characters of this film to grow in their moral capacity. Subsequently, they transition from Kohlberg’s second to third stage of moral development.
Kohlberg’s second stage of moral development is conventional. It is defined by conformity to the standards set by their community and deference to authority
figures (Snowman & McCown, 2015, p. 61). This is characterized initially by the white adolescent’s feelings about race and integration. Their beliefs and attitudes are generally consistent with the norms of their communities. They listen to their teachers and parents, aligning their moral compasses with these authority figures. Gerry begins the film by saying, “I don’t want to play with any of those black animals.” Inevitably, he is mimicking the values system of his parents and community, who are at the time fighting school integration. Individuals at this stage of moral reasoning are focused on maintaining law and order, and believe that to do so, it is “essential to respect authority” (Snowman & McCown, 2015, p. 61).
The integration of their high school presents a crisis of sorts for these white high school students, and necessitates that they begin to clearly define their own values. They are presented with new experiences and relationships that challenge their pre-conceived notions about the black community. As such, the characters must deal with that incoming knowledge, which is upsetting their cognitive equilibrium. According to Piaget’s work on cognitive development, the students must grapple with these new experiences by assimilating the new information into existing schemas, or accommodating their internal structures to better adapt to new evidence (Snowman & McCown, 2015, p. 38). In the film, many of the white students successfully accommodate the knowledge of their black teammates’ humanity. In this way, they have not changed their understanding of their teammates to conform to pre-existing schemes about what African Americans are like (assimilation). Instead, they have altered their schemes in order to incorporate the positive experiences they’ve shared with students of different races. They challenge their existing schemas and notions in order to fit with the evidence they have acquired training alongside these teammates (Snowman & McCown, 2015, p. 38).
Reference
Snowman, J., & McCown, R. (2015). Theories of psychosocial and cognitive development. In Psychology Applied to Teaching (14th ed., pp. 28-74). Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning.