Motivation and Teenagers

Motivating Teenage Girls in the Face of Peer Pressure

Pipher, Mary. “Reviving Ophelia” Ballantine Books: New York, 1994

Dr. Mary Pipher argues in her book, Reviving Ophelia, that teenage girls face extreme challenges in high school. Some are associated with larger psychological issues, but the one that is directly related to their school work is being too smart or not smart enough. While most students strive to understand the material and be the best in the class, if you are actually that top student, then you become an outcast. If you are the lowest student, then you also may become an outcast. Therefore, teenage girls often rebel in order to achieve the acceptance they crave from their peers. To combine the “too smart” or “too dumb” stigmas to a teenage girl in addition to the emotions and hormones of adolescents makes the teachers job even more difficult to educate his or her students.
To be “too smart” or even not smart enough can have devastating effects on a teenage girl’s motivation in school. If she is teased for understanding the material, then she begins to make mistakes on purpose, come late to class, forget supplies, and overall begins to drop her grade. To be cool and fit in is a priority for most teenage girls. Nobody wants to look stupid next to the smart girl, so they don’t befriend her. Instead of working toward a future goal like college, the teenage girl will accept the poor grades in order to be in the popular crowd. Dr. Pipher received dozens of female patients who actually gave up in order to be popular.
On the other hand, girls are also teased for not being smart enough. If you ask the simple questions, can’t pronounce words when reading aloud, and never receive good grades on report cards, then you are forced to hear snickering from your classmates and teased about how “dumb” you are. With this scenario as well, the girl’s motivation is low. She gives up. Maybe she decides to be a rebel and stops coming to class. She may even come and just disrupt every class by cracking jokes and making a scene that stops your teaching.
With either scenario, a teenage girl needs to fit in. Dr. Pipher suggested to many of her female students to begin writing three things they’re proud of each day so that the feeling of accomplishment and needs for success are inherent in the student. This way, she creates an internal motivation and the outside influences won’t matter as much. Grades are not as much of a priority as friends are to most teenage girls. It is the responsibility of the teacher then to ensure that every student feels appreciated so that no “smart girl” stands out above the rest and that no student who is struggling is given the chance to be picked on by her classmates.