PBIS: Pride

Sample Lesson - Introduction

Lesson 1.01: Pride in Yourself

 

Dustin decided to take more pride in his schoolwork, so he decided to test his theory about "sleep-learning" in preparation for his Algebra test. (Source)

We're all about pride here at Shmoop. And why not? Just look at our content. It's so great. We're amazing. Check us out.

If you ask us, your entire life should be you linking out to yourself. Everyone can benefit from having a little pride in themselves, but first they need to know what it is and what it isn't.

Self-pride is a close cousin of self-respect and self-esteem. It involves looking at the cool things you do and liking that you do them. There's more to it than that (things are never that easy), but we don't want to get ahead of ourselves.

Here, we're going to review what it means to be proud of yourself and when that pride becomes arrogance. And arrogance is gross. Seriously. You don't want to be called arrogant.

We'll also cover blind pride and excessive pride.

So either stop or start looking at yourself in the mirror: we've got a lot to cover.

Sample Lesson - Reading

Reading 1.1.01: Have You No Pride?

If you can't think of anything to be proud of, we'll give you one for free: you can read. Like, you're reading this right now. You made it all this way. You're fully literate. Wow.

Of course, mixed in with the pride that's welling up inside you right now, you should also feel grateful that you were given that opportunity. (Just sayin'.)

But when it comes to self-pride, you've also got to be careful. Beware of blind pride, excessive pride, and arrogance. Think about what you should be proud of and why. Don't worry, though: we'll help you through it.

Just keep reading.

Blind Pride

No one's perfect, Shmoopers. None of you. Not you, you, or you—especially you. Not even Shmoop is perfect. We make typos all the tiem. Just look at us; we're a complete mess.

Wait, where were we?

Oh, right...we're all horribly imperfect. Wait, no—we're all delightfully imperfect. (There we go.) This is something we all need to accept about ourselves. Once that's accomplished, it's easier to be proud of individual accomplishments and not just for existing.

If you're proud of yourself for existing, you should have a good reason. Maybe you belong to a minority group that has faced adversity and oppression. Maybe you've been struggling with mental illness, or had to fight to survive at some point in your life.

These are all good reasons.

If you don't have a good reason, it's blind pride. It ain't cute. Blind pride can very quickly turn into a Pureblood situation…when every other witch or wizard is made to feel bad that they aren't Pureblood, and they're physically and emotionally abused by Purebloods.

There are way too many real-life examples of this. Pick up any history book, and you will find examples of blind pride gone wrong.

What we're saying is, focus on what you do, not what's in your genes. As some old dude in literature once said, it's your choices that determine who you are.

Gandalf, right?

Excessive Pride

Accomplishments help build self-confidence, which you can consider a stepping-stone towards future accomplishments. Yeah, we should be telling you to never give up even if you fail, but it's a lot harder to keep running if your self-esteem is weighing you down. So when you finally achieve a difficult goal, reflect on it. Soak it in. You should be very proud of yourself.

But let's say you're proud of having brown eyes. That's fine and all, but you didn't really do anything to achieve the brownness of your eyes, did you? Neither did your parents, or their parents, or anyone, really. So what are you proud of, exactly?

Okay, maybe we're being nitpicky about how pride is used in this situation. We'll admit, the feeling of pride is way more complex than that. We just want to distinguish from pride that doesn't involve any effort on your part.

Please note: this is different from liking yourself. We do want you to like yourself.

We'll put it this way: if everyone in history only felt excessive pride for the things they personally achieved instead of their genetic traits, we probably would have avoided a few massive catastrophes.

Be careful with that kind of pride.

Shut Your Pride Hole

Imagine if we hyperlinked every single word in this sentence to other parts of our website and kept saying how every other e-learning website on the internet is super dumb. It's kind of like, "Okay, buddy…calm down," right?

Being proud of something awesome isn't necessarily a bad thing, but being excessively proud to the point where you feel completely superior?

Congratulations: you are arrogant.

Yes, this means you are arrogant and you need to check yourself. Arrogance comes when you develop a superiority complex. Even if you really are the best in the world, arrogance is not okay. It must always be combated with its arch nemesis: modesty. When your pride begins to make other people feel inferior, that's when you need to think about being humble and modest. Pride should be internal, not external.

In the Real World

No one likes blind pride. Especially not science.

• "National Pride Brings Happiness—But What You’re Proud of Matters"

Sample Lesson - Activity