Our Adolescents

Society immerses individuals in a complex web of contradictions. Each person experiences times in his or her life when the challenges of unravelling the mesh of influences on us, to find our own sense of direction and person, seems insurmountable. For some of us, the challenge begins during a time roughly aligned to the secondary school years. For others, there is no clear boundary to the beginning or end of the challenge. Amongst secondary school teachers though, there is a growing commitment to the notion that a part of the teaching role is to develop young people's understanding of themselves and to nurture them through times that can be pretty tough for some, at the same time as helping them to make the most of their academic and personal experiences at school. The issues raised and the discussion offered here provide an invaluable resource for beginning and experienced teachers as they attempt to address and resolve the educational challenges that they face along with the young people in our society.