Maslow's Hierarchy Of Needs Explains Why Some Children Fail

NaturalNews.com
Originally published September 15 2008

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs Explains Why Some Children Fail
by Barbara L. Minton


(NaturalNews) Dr. Abraham Maslow synthesized a large body of research
resulting in his master creation, the Hierarchy of Needs. This
hierarchy, beautiful in its simplicity, describes the stages of human
development through which each of us passes on the way to becoming
fully functioning, responsible adults ultimately moving toward the
pinnacle of achievement attained by humans.

There are seven stages in the hierarchy, which Maslow conceptualized
as a pyramid. He saw everyone beginning life at the bottom level, with
only a few reaching the top. Each step up the scale represents a major
triumph over the challenges of development, and advancement to the
next step is entirely dependent on mastery of the step before it. Here
are the steps on Maslow’s scale:

* Transcendence

* Self-Actualization

* Aesthetic Needs

* Need to Know and Understand

* Esteem Needs

* Love and Belonging Needs

* Safety Needs

* Physiological Needs

At the physiological level is the need for air, water, nourishment,
good health, activity, rest, and avoidance of pain. The developing
child requires a belly of nourishing food and a clean diaper before he
is in any condition to move on to a higher stage of development such
as playing patty-cake with his parents. Some of these needs may be
specific to the child. For example, a child deficient in a particular
nutrient will develop a specific hunger for foods containing that
nutrient.

At the safety and security level the physiological needs have largely
been taken care of and the child is confident that they still continue
to be taken care of. He becomes increasingly interested in finding
safe circumstances, stability and protection. As an example, he may
run to his parent when he sees a dog he doesn’t know. It is at this
level where he develops a need for structure, order, and limits. It is
also here that he develops fears and anxiety. He may worry about
someone breaking into his home, a monster in his closet, or a drive by
shooting in his neighborhood.

At the love and belonging level the child needs others to love and to
provide him with a sense of belonging. At this level, some sort of
family stability is needed in order for the child to invest love in
someone else. If his care giving parent dies or is incarcerated and he
is placed in a series of foster homes, he may not attain the feeling
of stability required for emotional investment. If it appears that no
one wants to make a lasting commitment to him, he may be unable to
love himself. This sense of belonging is threatened when parents
divorce. And at this level, loneliness and social anxiety may become
manifest.

At the esteem level the child searches for feelings of self-worth.
Maslow noted two versions of the esteem need, one he saw as of a lower
order and the other as of a higher order. The lower need is for the
respect of others. This involves the need for status, fame,
recognition, attention, reputation, appreciation, respect and
dominance. The higher form involves the need to respect one’s self.
This includes feelings of confidence, competence, achievement,
mastery, independence and freedom. Clearly Maslow saw the achievement
of self-respect as being more important than achieving the respect of
others. It is at this level that low self-esteem and feelings of
inferiority may manifest. Maslow, like many other psychologists,
believed that low self-esteem was at the root of most psychological
problems.

These four levels were considered by Maslow to be deficiency or
instinctual needs. If the child is deficient at any of the four
levels, he becomes highly compelled to fulfill that need. But if he
has all his needs fulfilled at each level, he feels nothing and is not
at all compelled by them.

The remaining four needs are growth needs able to be acted upon only
if the deficiency needs are fully met. Once the growth needs are
engaged, they continue to be felt and may become stronger as they are
fed.

At the need to know and understand level the child develops his
cognitive potential. This is the level on which schools would like to
operate, and it is actually the level on which many schools in
comfortable neighborhoods function because the deficiency needs of
their students have been met. Here the child is able listen, speak and
explore in his quest to understand and make meaning from the world
around him.

At the aesthetic level the child approaches and appreciates symmetry,
order and beauty. He becomes able to invest emotion into his learning.

At the self actualization level the child is a child no longer and has
become a self-fulfilled, fully functioning individual able to accept
responsibility for his own life. At this level, the individual has
come near to achieving his full potential, to be the person he was
born to be. This is the stated goal of the educational system. Only a
small percentage of the world’s population is truly, predominantly,
self-actualizing.

At the transcendence level the individual Maslow describes achieves a
motivation that surpasses ego driven behavior. The few who achieve
this level see life as a journey in which the means are often more
important than the ends. They are comfortable around all people but
enjoy solitude. People at this level are capable of deep personal
relationships yet enjoy autonomy. They resist enculturation and are
not susceptible to social pressure. They are acceptant of themselves
and others, and enjoy spontaneity and simplicity. They are
appreciative, creative and ethical.

We who live in abundance and relative safety may not fully realize
that these are not the conditions under which many children in our
country live. We have been told by our politicians and media that the
reason children fail is because their teachers are not held
accountable, or their schools are not up to standard. It is this sort
of thinking that has allowed for the passage of the No Child Left
Behind Act (NCLB).

Implicit in this act is the assumption that if instruction is
standardized and confined to a few core subjects, students will learn
the curriculum and achieve at prescribed levels. Standardized
instruction with results measured by standardized tests is the
prescription for schools with failing children.

The concept that schools in which a number of children fail are
failures themselves has made it into legislatures. Recent state
takeovers of school districts in Little Rock, Philadelphia, Boston and
St. Louis have shown how easy it is to assign blame without any
attempt to grasp the real reasons for failure of their children.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs offers a simple, clear and resonant
explanation for why children fail. His four deficiency needs must be
fully met before the child is in any condition to benefit from his
school experience. He must have nourishing food, a consistent home
with heat in the winter, and the feeling of being safe before his mind
is free to learn at school. Can you imagine what it is like to be
awakened during the night by gunshots in your neighborhood, get up in
an apartment where the heat has been cut off, or walk to school
through a neighborhood of abandoned buildings where someone might pull
you in? How can you achieve the self-esteem needed for learning when
you know that your family is on the bottom of the economic pile, or
your parent has just been arrested?

Many of the children who have been unable to fulfill the needs
necessary for school achievement live in the inner cities that are so
well represented on lists of failing school districts. Sadly, there is
no acknowledgement of the conditions under which they live, and the
impact of these conditions on their lack of school achievement. When
underperforming schools lose funding it is the social workers,
counselors and psychologists whose jobs are the first to be cut. Yet
these are the people who act as the front line for helping children
who are unable to meet their deficiency needs.

Perhaps we can excuse our legislative bodies for NCLB and for state
takeovers. Many legislative members have no idea of the realities
facing many of America’s school children. And for those who are too
busy dealing with other important issues, it becomes too tempting to
assume a direct cause / effect relationship and assume that if a child
is failing at school, it must be the teacher’s fault.

Sources:

W. Huitt Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, Educational Psychology
Interactive Valdosta, Ga.

Dr. C. George Boreree "Abraham Maslow, Personality Theories


About the author
Barbara is a school psychologist, a published author in the area of
personal finance, a breast cancer survivor using "alternative"
treatments, a born existentialist, and a student of nature and all
things natural.

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