（1993年度　追試験　英語　第５問）

Humans, in trying to understand the world, tend to find what they expect to find. Moreover, through their actions, they may even cause their expectations to become fact without being aware of it, as the following example shows.

In an experiment carried out at an elementary school, teachers were told that certain children would “bloom” in their school work, although they were not chosen according to ability. They were expected to perform better, and the results showed that they did. It seems that the teachers actively, though probably unconsciously, brought about the expected improvement in the students by the way they treated them. Although the teachers believed they had no effect, the improvement was, in fact, the result of their behavior based on the predictions. In the classroom, teachers form impressions of students from such things as appearance, behavior and previous test scores, and give them “labels.” When the expectations are high as in the experiment, the students may improve, but if the teachers have low expectations, the students may fail to make progress. 

Schools are certainly not the only places where people label others and then form expectations based on these possibly incorrect labels. For example, some criminals who have been released from prison return to crime because society does not expect them to change. Or, in some societies, people of a certain color or class are often found to be most successful at school and in their professions. This may be because they have always been positively labeled, whereas other groups are expected to fail. 

We must recognize that using a label is a dangerous way to judge a person: people’s personalities develop and their lives change. We should understand that another person’s behavior may result from our own prejudice towards that person. By being aware that expectations may produce their own outcome, we can avoid labeling and allow every person an equal chance in life.

(318 words)