The roller coaster of adaptation

Dr. Maddox Assignment: Write a paper on a topic of your choosing.

I spent the vast majority of my life living right outside of New York City, quite possibly the greatest city in the country, if not the world. I suppose that one could wrongfully argue that it wasn’t the greatest city in existence, but one could never say that it didn’t offer an enormous wealth of activities, eateries, and amusements. Before moving to Mississippi, everyone warned that I was going to be in for a considerable culture shock, and at the time I brushed it aside. I’m the kind of person that could easily enjoy a slower, more relaxing environment and a biscuit with every meal, so I figured I’d get along just fine. However, I’m six months into the experience, and I can definitely tell that I am most certainly riding the curve of cultural adaptation.

Culture shock describes the psychological, and in some cases physical, reactions of a person staying in a foreign location for an extended period of time. These reactions are the result of some type of conflict brought on by the new location or culture. These conflicts include a wide range of possible problems, such as an inability to easily communicate with the local inhabitants, a difference in ideas and beliefs, and a difficulty with overcoming obstacles inherent to a challenging situation. Adaptation to the new environment typically progresses through a series of four phases.

The first phase is known as the honeymoon phase, and this phase is characterized by a period of elation due to the excitement brought on by the novelty of the situation. This phase lasted all through the summer training offered by the Mississippi Teacher Corps, and extended into my first three months of teaching at North Panola High School. I had met a lot of really great people during summer training, and by the end of the summer, it appeared as though I had become fairly decent at both teaching and managing a classroom. Despite my lack of skills and experience, I started the school year with high expectations, really believing that I could make a difference.

As I taught more and gained confidence, I began to think that maybe this was what I was intended to do, that it was fairly likely that I would be staying here beyond the two years required by the program. However, as the end of October neared, the second phase began to set in. The second phase, otherwise known as the culture shock phase, is marked by a sharp decline in mood and perceived competence. The situation is no longer novel, and problems that were once overlooked and ignored become apparent and irritating.

I began my career at North Panola High School with the idealistic belief that my job was to teach; I quickly learned however that putting up with an incompetent administration was just as much a part of my job as the actual teaching. Working for a school under the control of the state, means having to work an extended workday. Exhaustion and frustration have set in, and the pointless pieces of paperwork and monotonous meetings only serve to compound those feelings. I lack the enthusiasm I had when I started and I feel as though I’m no longer making the difference I had hoped I would make.

The lowest point of the second phase often coincides with feelings of homesickness, depression, and helplessness, but one can begin to move on to the third phase, the adjustment or resolution phase, by accepting the reality of the situation. In writing this, I feel as though I have started the progression into that phase. The fact of the matter is that these schools wouldn’t be dubbed as critical needs if they were being run properly and efficiently. Mississippi Teacher Corps places us in these schools so that we can do our best to fix these problems, and before one can make an attempt at solving these issues, one must first be able to cope with them.

All I can do is do the best with what I’ve got, and in doing so I hope that I can bring some benefit to the school at which I’ve been placed. This past Thursday and Friday I had two really great lessons, something I hadn’t pulled off in a couple of weeks, so things are most definitely looking up. The third phase is characterized by an increase in mood and perceived competency, and in time the fourth phase arrives, the mastering or stabilization phase.

The fourth phase is reached when one has finally adapted to their new location and situation. This is evident by feeling comfortable with the reality of the situation and having confidence in one’s own competency. This phase appears as a plateau, and may stabilize above or below the peak of the initial honeymoon phase. Only time will tell which it ends up being for me, but thus far this experience has proven to be incredibly rewarding, and should I ever actually become great at this, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the fourth phase of my cultural adaptation stabilized at a point greater than it had been when I first arrived in Mississippi. It’s hard to say if I’ll be here longer than two years, but I can definitely say that I am adapting.