“A new period of life is emerging in which young people are no longer adolescents but not yet adults,” Mr. Furstenberg said.

• Long Road to Adulthood is Growing Even Longer by Patricia Cohen

It is so difficult to teach adolescents when I don’t feel like an adult. I feel as though I go through the motions of an adult, but am surviving in the body and mindset of an adolescent. I am 22 years old and I have currently been viewing the word “adult” as a verb. I look around to see who is successfully being an adult.

This makes teaching my students difficult because if I don’t believe that I am adult then I don’t behave that way in the classroom. I don’t exhibit the confidence that I feel is necessary to get my job done as an educator. I find it to be a disservice to my students and to myself, but I don’t feel as though there is a way to get around my own insecurities. I get nervous speaking at the front of the classroom and I am aware of how much taller than me some of my students are. I wish I had more guidance on how to present myself in a classroom because it has become painfully aware to me that I may not always appear to be fooling my students into thinking that I am successfully being an adult.