“A positive attitude for teaching adolescents is a necessary element for becoming an effective middle level teacher. Because of its elusive nature, teacher attitude is difficult to teach, but by all means needs to be incorporated into teacher education programs to instill a sense that middle school teachers can make a significant difference in the lives of young adolescents. (176-177)”
This is a quote in the article You Wang to be a What? I was slightly terrified half way through the article when I read it and feeling completely helpless because the adolescents depicted in the article seem so similar yet also different from those in my country or when I was in middle school.

In a general sense, all adolescents going through certain physical and mental developmental changes all over the world. But what’s different is that adolescents in different cultures deal with the drastic changes differently with different expectations of them from American culture which is very different from Chinese culture but also at the same time made me more sensitive about their behaviors which is a positive influence given the diverse student body I will be facing. For example Chinese adolescents are more reserved because of the Chinese cultural influence of promoting modesty, conservation, and low profile in comparison with American adolescents who are more The differences made me worry about not being able to fully understand my future students here outgoing, self expressing, free-spirited.
But with the diverse student body, teaching young adolescents could be challenging for any teacher from any cultural background. And the key here as the passage mentioned is to stay positive. Then comes the question about how to stay positive and how positive should we as teachers be? To keep believing in our students and have a positive mind is very challenging with adolescents challenging us from time to time and to find the balance is the key because it is hard for me to imagine a middle school teacher being respected and taken seriously by being too positive about everything which would seem a little unreal. I think maybe what the passage is trying to promote is that working with adolescents is very challenging and it is important to really care about them and stay positive especially when things are not going well as expected and always believe in our jobs making a difference in these teenagers lives by trying to educate them and influencing them positively.