The High School classroom: Self-esteem.

Self-esteem can be defined as self-love. However, it goes much further, because self-love has many aspects. Like our best friend, an individual with an adequate self-esteem takes care of himself, loves himself, strives to stay healthy, forms himself properly, keeps away from what could harm him.

This is why we talk about high or low self-esteem. Low self-esteem is not healthy, but neither is excessively high self-esteem. The ideal is the realistic concept of oneself, neither very high nor very low, accompanied by self-acceptance.

Definitely, a crisis of self-esteem is suffered during adolescence. In this stage we are not children, and neither adults. Sometimes we want to be treated like children, and at other times as adults. To top it off, our body changes and our hormones manifest. It's a party of transformations of all kinds, and not everyone has fun in this party. For some adolescents it is a real tragedy, where sexual changes, the disproportion in the size of extremities in relation to the body, acne, new hair and mood changes are the order of the day. It is not easy to maintain a healthy level of self-esteem in these conditions.

However, we all know that this stage is temporary, that everything will change for the better, and that adolescence has, on the other hand, many positive things and it is a stage to be lived with joy. Nevertheless, unfortunately, most of us who know this are adults who have already passed this stage and know that it is so. For a teenager it can be a never-ending nightmare. It is important that parents and teachers are there to support and guide them on an appropriate path to adulthood.

In our classroom, we will find students with different levels of self-esteem. It is up to us as teachers to appreciate those differences and reinforce the positive aspects in each one, without demerit of the errors or defects manifested by each one. A student with low self-esteem is easy to identify: he does not intervene in class, usually out of fear of criticism or ridicule and becomes nervous when he has to. Their grades are low or do not leave the average. He will not approach the teacher with questions or comments, and if he speaks to him, he will most likely not keep his eyes. A teenager with low self-esteem also reflects it in his personal arrangement: nails, hair, clothing. They usually seek to cover themselves with their dress, even covering part of their face with their hair.

The teacher should take advantage of the moments when a student with low self-esteem has the courage to participate in class, or be forced by the circumstances. The mere fact that he intervenes should be cause for congratulation, taking care not to put it in evidence before his companions because "finally X student is participating." A student with low self-esteem should be treated with sensitivity in this regard.

As teachers, we must be aware of the importance we have in the lives of our students and how much we can positively or negatively influence their self-esteem. An adequate response on our part to any interaction with our students is able to help their healthy growth as individuals. We must not only believe in the abilities of our students, it is our duty to let them know, to stimulate those abilities, that light that each one radiates, however weak it may be. Most of them never forget a teacher who has held out his hand, made him feel important, and appreciated his work or words.