Have you ever been humbled as a high school student? Me too, it’s not a fun experience, but it humbles you. An experience I know most if not every student at Tallwood has gone through is a presentation. You go into it thinking you’ll do great, you have all your information and then you get up in front of the class and blank. You end up stuttering and shaking through your presentation, developing sweat stains, and feeling horrible by the end. Public speaking isn’t easy, but it teaches an important lesson. Overall, high school is a very humbling experience. Most students can attest they’ve been through some humbling things themselves. One skill that Tallwood should teach all students is the importance of humility.
I think it’s safe to say most high school students are often pretty prideful to cover up their lack of confidence as they figure out who they are. The real world is tough and will knock that pride out of you. This is why it is important to learn it young. No one is better than anyone else. Don’t let pride get in the way of being a good person. The importance of humility comes from the lessons it teaches and the kind of person it molds. When an individual can be humble, they can accept they’re wrong without being upset, apologize sincerely, and handle criticism well. As a student and an individual being wrong is just a part of life, and will happen more often than wanted. Once one can humble themselves, they can also accept being in the wrong. Most adults today can barely admit they’re in the wrong because their pride is in control.
When humans let their pride take control they are prevented from acknowledging their vulnerabilities, limitations, and mistakes. When an individual is aware of those three things they are more likely to reflect and grow from them. Learning to be humble gets simpler with time which why it is important to start learning as a teenager. It will improve your friendships, relationships, and who you are as a person. Some people may say to lack pride is to lack confidence but they mean two different things. Pride is what you already have, and confidence is something you believe you can have. You can have confidence and still be humble, but you cannot have pride and remain humble. Oftentimes people who are prideful boast about the things they do have, and put themselves on a pedestal. When you have the mindset that you are better than other people it’s not looked at as confidence or a good characteristic. An individual can have confidence in what they can accomplish without putting themselves above anyone else. In addition, pride is something humans use to compensate for their lack of confidence. Not being confident results in people thinking of themselves as superior. This is when we see people thinking they are greater than others Overall pride isn’t a characteristic students should want to have. Making them aware of the difference between pride and humility can teach good characteristics.
To be humble is to be modest, and lack pride. You can be modest and be confident in yourself at the same time. Modesty doesn’t diminish your character or confidence. Tough lessons lead to emotional maturity and good character. Humbling yourself allows you to accept, learn, and improve from your mistakes. A lesson students learn through different experiences in their four years of school. It is easier to learn from the mistakes one is making when they know the lesson they should be learning. In this instance, it’s the difference between pride and humility. To put it plainly pride is bad and humility is good. That’s why it is important to teach students what humility can do for their character, how it can help them develop as growing young adults, and why they should want to improve on that characteristic rather than their pride.
