Returning to High School

 

The cliché “it’s all downhill after high school” is not only catchy but has important meaning. Individuals often return to the imagination of high school as if these memories were imprinted on their psyche. Statistics have revealed that one third of all adult males in the United States and one quarter of all adult women would choose to stay permanently between the ages of 15 and 19. This disquisition focuses on the why we return to our high school years.

Does reverting back to high school years happen because of the boosted testosterone levels and wet dreams; driving that first car; getting to first base; dating, dancing, joining the popular peer group etc.? What about the myth of Eternal Return? This myth suggests there is a utopia as in paradise or heaven. Further, as time shortens, reality fades in older age. That imaginative return is alluring. Is it a glimpse of pleasure, happiness and youth in another place in another time that appeals?

This Eternal Return is based on a premise that time is cyclical. In other words, what happens now has happened before and will happen again at some basic level if not exactly in the same detail. On the other hand, life, in the world, moves forward in secular time. Often we do not see that the new is the old come around again, and to understand the new we must return to the old. Scholars of the myth contrast two kinds of time. The first is secular, sacred, rational, mystical, forward moving, and timeless which is like the body. The second aspect of time moves in circles like the psyche, soul or character. It’s a movement of self-concentrated awareness of intellectualization, of living its life reaching to all things so that nothing shall be outside of it and nothing anywhere but within its scope. This was the description of the myth according to the Greek philosopher Plotinus.

Turning from philosophy, I have another opinion as to why we return to memories and imagination from our high school years. Theoretically, we pass through life in developmental stages. These developmental stages are critical periods for human growth. Successful resolution and working through that critical time or stage, suggests that one has a much better opportunity to successfully work through the next stage and so forth. By the same token, difficulty or impairment at any stage negatively affects the next succeeding stage or period. The high school years encompasses developmentally one such critical period in human development.

 For example, according to Jean Piaget, there are four stages of intellectual growth. He called the first stage Sensorimotor and the fourth stage as Formal Operations .Formal Operations begin in adolescence and then on to adulthood. In his thinking, Piaget believed that in Formal Operations, the individual was now able to think more sophisticated with abstraction, theoretical concepts, with such skills as logical thought, deductive reasoning and systematic planning. In other words, the adolescent is intellectually capable of: 1. Increased ability to consider hypothetical possibilities 2. Guided by self-awareness of one’s physical and psychological changes 3. More introspective and analytical. Just discuss some topic and debate a teenager around any issue especially pertaining to rules, restrictions and regulations and you’ll know what I mean.

As far as moral development, Lawrence Kohlberg believed there were three stages of moral development. The first stage in Kohlberg’s thinking was Preconventional and the third stage was Post Conventional. Adolescents, in the Post Conventional stage have the capacity to: 1. Begin to think about, challenge and question the social and political beliefs of their parents 2. Begin to think about and question beliefs and ideas from other significant ideological groups 3. Began to become more oriented toward inner concerns and become less other directed, but still without clear rational and universal principles 4. They begin looking for a more widely societal consensus.  According to Kohlberg, many adolescents do not proceed beyond this stage but a limited number go on to achieve a higher level of moral reasoning. For example: 1. They tend to be guided by abstract ethical principles appealing to logical comprehensiveness, universality and consistency 2. Their motivation for conformity is based on their consistent, internalized moral standards 3. They become clearer with their principled thinking 4. These few adolescents are then able to incorporate consistent internalized moral standards. Empirically, Kohlberg incorporated upon Piaget’s cognitive theory of intellectual functioning.

Physically, during adolescence, levels of hGH, DHEA, estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone are rapidly increasing. Physical strength, skill and motor control proceeds with rapid development. Did you look at the physique and watch Lebron James, Kobe Bryant or Kevin Garnet play high school basketball? Sure, later development occurred. But their ability, at that age, was phenomenal. Just observe the skill level of all the freshman college football players. Today’s young athletes are impressive.

Psychologically, with the development of character, the individual is also forming his identity which is a necessary component. Erik H Erikson postulated 8 stages of psychological ego development. In stage 5, the development of Ego Identity, the individual puts together or assimilates his relationship to academic and intellectual skills, rapid body growth, and genital maturity along with the ability to relate to others in different ways. With ego identity, if successful, one has the ability to integrate the various identifications with the development of his physical endowments along with his many or limited opportunities offered in the availability of social roles, future life work and goals. In this stage, people are remarkably clannish, cruel and they tend to exclude others of darker skin color, cultural backgrounds, how they dress as well as other minor differences.  In other words, they can be very prejudiced and clannish within this stage. They form cliques, have enemies and pledge fidelity to certain groups and ideologies. It’s important to be in the “in” group versus the “out” group.  If you happened to be in the wrong group, you were out of luck and insecure. Successful resolution in this stage gives that adolescent a better opportunity to develop, at the next stage, a sense of intimacy for future relationships. If unsuccessful, narcissism, being alone and failed relationships follow. Moreover, with a weak ego, unfortunately leads that teenager to look for deviant, amoral, antisocial groups for identification and alienation from mainstream society.

During the high school years, we have a much different animal psychologically, emotionality and physicality. Yes, we had so many unique and significant emotional experiences. As a result of our imagination of our sexual experiences and the importance of peer affiliative memories, we have accumulated being scared, pleasure, happy, sad, disappointed, joy, excited etc. These sexual and emotional experiences happened during a significant or critical time of our life. Who could forget them? Why would anyone not want to remember them?  Maybe so, if an individual had difficulty learning, was bullied and was excluded and rejected it might be a different story. With that being said, the return might be to Utopia, Hell or some place in between.

The powerful experiences pertaining to friendships, achievements, sex, rejection, safety, disappointments, highs, lows, ups, downs, pimples, wearing Levi’s etc. played a significant part in the ongoing continuity of our character. Our psychological needs had to be met then as well as now, for our well-being.

Yes, time proceeds in a straight line as evidenced by changes in body. Yes, psychological history tends to repeat itself. With the dynamic of repetition compulsion, we repeat situations which is also a function of character. Yes, there can be an unhealthy regression to the past with fixation. In that case, there’s a chink or deficit in the armor of character. It’s about character and the ability to incorporate the past, the present and the future. Sound character leads to a fulfilling life that encompasses all our previous imaginative stories especially those from adolescence. Of course, we have other imaginative tales from other critical periods during our lifetime. However, the critical period of adolescence with cognitive, moral, physical and ego identity challenges are most powerfully based.  Its importance lies from the point of view of character development. The frequent imaginative return is proof of that fact.

PS

I continue to maintain contact with my high school buddy Wayne and visit him when I returned to the Detroit area. Incidentally, prior to Covid-19, Wayne meets regularly with our high school buddies.