Discussion Question #3: Lack of Self-Esteem

One concept that I found interesting in The Essential Guide to Group Communication is the lack of self-esteem members have in groups. When students lack self-esteem, students are not confident in their work, thoughts, or input. This may be due to a student’s environment, or simply because the student is naturally unsure about his quality of work. This usually happens when students worry about what his peers think and is afraid to be seen as less than expected if what he says is not of quality. Thus, a student’s ideas may be ignored or considered little by the other group members making him feel rejected or of little worth. Being a minority in a dominant Caucasian high school, I typically had doubts of my say in group projects. I always had the presumption that my peers were always right or had better comments and ideas. As a result, I rarely voiced out my opinion and often agreed with what was said previously. However, one piece of advice that changed my position in group work was when my Government teacher said, “by not participating and not saying what’s on your mind, you are only cheating everyone else in your group by depriving them of such knowledge.” Since then, I have tried to contribute more in group work because I do not want to deprive anyone of anything, especially of knowledge. Furthermore, by doing so, I realized that I do have thoughts and opinions that are valuable to others.