It was fascinating to use Erikson's fourth step while I was observing Oak and other kindergartners, because it related to everything that was happening in classroom, parent-child interactions, and the importance of trust and confidence gains. I really wish the school year hadn't ended, because I would have loved to use Erikson's scenes for an entire school year to see exactly how the kids move from one stage to the next. Often our society thinks that children need to develop based on grade levels, but in reality, they need to master one skill before they can move on to the next one and it takes everyone a different amount of time to get there. Erikson's fourth step really resonated with me since I am a preschool teacher, and my biggest lesson from this observation was how important confidence is for a child and how a child must have a strong foundation of confidence to learn and grow. “Life is meaningless without interdependence. We need each other, and the sooner we learn that, the better for all of us” (Erikson, 1980). I strongly believe in this quote from Erikson because, as a teacher, I see how important it is for peer interactions to learn and grow, and the same goes for parents. We must all work together to create a positive learning environment; but we cannot do it if a link in the environment is missing