In contrast to my other MVP (Most Valuable Passage) responses which are all concerned with the differences of my personal experience as an adolescent years ago in China due to cultural reasons, this article actually does agree with what I have experienced in terms of content and degree.

After all, there should be some universal problems and issues that adolescents face and need the help and education of their teacher. The separation of different groups of different kinds of students, the importance of being popular, the constant self evaluation, the questioning of everything, the search for identity and so on, as the author puts it, makes people cannot help but wonder “As if the physical changes aren’t enough for young adolescents”.
Among all the difficulties they meet, what really strikes me is the ethnic identity they are trying to figure out themselves during this age. I understand the importance of being able to identify one’s own ethnic group but what is also a challenge is for some students who are the progeny of more than one ethnic group. I have known and learned from this kind of people how hard it was for them to find their own identity because of the “non-purity” of their blood, during their adolescence when they were supposed to find and learn about their ethnic groups, they were often rejected by all groups instead of being accepted by all. This turns out to be more than problematic and even painful for students in this situation and it is critical for us as teachers to know and understand the situation and try to help them figure out “who they are”.