“Young adolescence sets into motion a search for identities: social, gender, ethnic, cultural, familial, socioeconomic, and spiritual, all related to who they think they are now and who they want to become as adults. Their futures lives seem more immediate to them, although they are years from taking on the responsibilities of mature adults. / Beliefs related to their own maturity lead to many assumptions and much confusion about how much independence they have, are entitled to, and want.”
Brown,D. & Knowles, T. (2007). Who am I? The Social, Emotional, and Identity Trials of Young Adolescence. In What every middle school teacher should know. (2nd Ed., pp.37-66). New Hampshire: Heinemann Press.
While we are now passed the age of adolescence, I’m sure most of us can still remember the mischiefs we raised as adolescents and the feeling of being “mature” or “old enough” to make our own decisions, when in reality, we were still very much a child heavily dependent on our parents and families.
Things such as “hanging with the right crowd,” “wearing fashionable clothes,” “being accepted,” and “getting a bad grade on the first marking period in seventh grade” in retrospect, really does not matter years down the road, however, for adolescents, these factors that determine their “status” in school are critical. To the minds of adolescents, the consequences associated with these things are huge and will impact their lives “forever.” This mindset truly brings unneeded mental pressure and anxiety, yet, for most adolescents, this process is something that can’t be skipped, and thus educators and parents must keep this in mind when trying to understand an adolescent and his/her actions. In short, something that seems to be rather nominal to an adult is astronomical to an adolescent and shouldn’t be brushed aside.
In today’s technological age and society, it becomes even more essential for teachers and parents to be vigilant. Children can easily put things up onto the World Wide Web in a moment of extreme emotions or rush that they might end up regretting later on or frankly, even forgetting about it and not know that whatever they posted on the web might hurt another person. Adolescents too should be more self-aware and vigilant when expressing themselves on the web. Perhaps a mini course or unit should be taught to adolescents about cyber bullying, the Internet and its consequences when self-expression is used without thoughts of the feelings of others especially peers.