Editorial Teenagers – The Trials and Tribulations Being a teenager today is hard work. Schools are currently preparing students for jobs that do not yet exist. These same jobs will be using technologies that are waiting to be invented, and will be used to solve problems that do not yet exist. The role of education today is to produce students who know how to respond when faced with situations for which they were not specifically prepared. To prepare teenagers to thrive in a world of constant change requires schools to focus not only on content but also on character. Schools should be committed to increasing student's resourcefulness and resilience, while, at the same time, developing their ability to be more reflective and reciprocal in their dealings with others. It is true that life does not always play by the rules, but it was not all that long ago when we could be reasonably expected to plan the direction our lives
would take us. This is no longer true for teenagers today. It is hard to plan for change other than to be responsive to it. I sometimes wonder if the overrepresentation of teenagers in our negative statistics is a result of the high levels of stress they find themselves under due to the increasing responsibilities and complexities of life. If we as a society are not broadening the resources that young people have at their disposal to meet the demands they are experiencing, it seems logical that their attempts to cope may become increasingly desperate and dysfunctional. Investing in the content of a student's character is a positive way to create some form of surety in their lives. This is not just the role of educators, but society in general. If you and I struggle with that idea, consider how we might fare if we were to start all over again and were confronted with the same trials and tribulations that our teenagers currently face.
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