High school is a
time for adolescents to mature. Students
that attend gather their first glimpse of adulthood and experience rites of
passage. Since secondary education
already houses an initiation for students, any reform attempt has proven
difficult. High school may never change.
In Lynn M. Hoffman’s “Why High Schools Don’t
Change: What Students and Their Yearbooks Tell Us” a study is conducted by
following “yearbook students from five high schools” within one “large suburban
school system” (Hoffman 22). The
students were asked questions to find what was most important and “memorable to
them throughout their high school experience” (Hoffman 22). Yearbooks were also analyzed. The purpose of the study was to examine “how
students use their high school experiences…to complete the work of their change
in status from children to young adults” (Hoffman 25). Hoffman designed the study to show evidence
for the claims made by other scientists and researchers who studied secondary
education and rites of passage. This
article uses an academic tone to discuss ideas of high school rites of passage
and record data from Hoffman’s study.
The article begins
with a series of topics such as: “The Immutable Nature of the High School,”
“Support for the Status Quo,” “How Adolescent Ethos, Rites of Passage, and the
High School Are Intertwined,” “Rites of Intensification,” and “The High School
Yearbook.” These topics introduce the
reader to Hoffman’s study by describing ideas from other researchers’
studies. For example, within the section
“Rites of Intensification” Hoffman writes, “Chapple and Coon (1942) suggest
that rites of passage are organized around individuals while rites of
intensification are centered around groups” (Hoffman 25). She later uses these studies as a basis for
analyzing her findings from the high school yearbook students. Hoffman then describes the purpose or thesis
of her study in which she states many questions the study was designed to
answer. The questions have to do with
high school yearbooks and the students who write them, as well as analysis to
support the claims of the researchers Hoffman has followed throughout the
article.
After her
introduction, Hoffman describes the methodology behind her research. The “Research Methodology” section is one the
few areas she records quantitative data.
For instance, she describes the diversity of the schools used in the
study by the range of sizes, percentages of students on free or reduced lunch,
and percentages of seniors with plans to attend a four-year college. She also describes the yearbook students whom
participated in the study as “predominately female (from 67% to 95% of each
yearbook class; primarily of junior and senior class status (from 54% to 100%),
and White (from 78% to 95%)” (Hoffman 26).
Hoffman also verifies the assumptions she made during her research in
this section, all of which are from previous researchers. She then moves into the results of her study,
again breaking each idea or topic into its own section like the following: “The
Importance of Friends,” “Getting Along,” “Being Involved,” “Being Independent,”
“Rites of Passage and Intensification High School As A Four Year Rite of
Passage,” and “The Absence of Academics.”
Most of these topics are elements of a larger idea described by Chang in
his research, which “served as the framework for” Hoffman’s study, coined
adolescent ethos (Hoffman 34). Hoffman
defines the term as such: “the process of fulfilling their developmental needs”
(Hoffman 35).
The results from
Hoffman’s work show that from the time students enter high school as freshman
they “are working at growing up” (Hoffman 35).
She suggests, “[t]he landscape of the high school years is dotted with
rites of intensification and smaller rites of passage that mark the transition
of seasonal activities and movement from one grade to the next” (Hoffman
35). The students in the study
prioritize friendship but also value independence and being involved. Hoffman explains that students value not only
close friends but acquaintances as well.
She records, “[s]tudents noted that just having lots of age mates around
them on a daily basis was very satisfying to them” (Hoffman 26). Hoffman’s claims are all supported by her
research of others’ studies or the data collected from her own study. Interviews with students and observations of
yearbooks are recalled throughout the results section of the article. The use of scientific evidence makes sense
given Hoffman’s background.
Lynn M. Hoffman is
a Doctor of Education with a focus in school administration, high school
culture, and rites of passage. Hoffman
is a professor of a large range of education topics at Bucknell University (Education). She is deeply invested in research having to
do with the high school experience and how it constitutes as a rite of
passage. Her article is published in the
High School Journal, an academic
journal focused on the field of secondary education (Project MUSE). Readers of the High School Journal are likely students pursuing a career in
studying or teaching high school or professors that are continuing their
research in the field. This explains the
objective, academic nature of the article.
The article has a structure of a research paper to make all data and
conclusions clear. The language in the
piece is also not hard to understand, and all terms are professional. However, sentences are long and one must be
invested in Hoffman’s research in order to pay attention. The article is a scientific study that
provides facts and not opinions. These
facts also must have a plethora of evidence to back them up.
“Why High Schools
Don’t Change: What Students and Their Yearbooks Tell Us” ends with a section
entitled “Summary”. In this section
Hoffman discusses her study as a whole starting with her results and ending
with a question for the reader to think about.
She states, “[a] lack of understanding on the part of adults about what
adolescents believe is important in their life preparation may further ensure
that the traditional high school program remains entrenched in spite of efforts
to reinvent it” (Hoffman 36). She makes
no argument for whether or not schools should be reformed; she only suggests
that her research shows evidence for why high schools stay the way they are.
Works Cited
Education.
Dept. home page. Bucknell University. Web.
14 June 2013. <http://www.bucknell.edu/x62343.xml>
Hoffman,
Lynn. “Why High Schools Don’t Change: What Students and Their Yearbooks Tell Us.”
The High School Journal 86.2
(2002-2003): 22-37. Academic Search
Complete. Web. 13 June 2013.
Project
MUSE. The High School Journal. Web.
15 June 2013. <http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/hsj/>
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