DEALING WITH ADOLESCENTS
An adolescent is a young person who
is developing from a child into an adult between the age of 13 and 18. It is an
awkward age.
In his famous short story the Home Coming the Indian poet and
author Rabindranath Tagore (1861-41) describes a boy at the age of fourteen as
the worst nuisance in this world of human affairs. According him such a boy is
neither useful nor ornamental . He finds himself stuck in an awkward, painful,
and misunderstood stage of growth. He is considered neither a little child, nor
a grown-up boy.
His presence becomes inconvenient.
He continuously gets in the way of others and any speech by him – childish or
mature –is regarded as impertinent.
His appearance becomes unattractive.
He outgrows his clothes, and his voice starts breaking. His interacting with
elders is marked by undue boldness and paralyzing shyness.
At this age, he wants to be as close
to girls and women as possible.
His habits change from abstinence to
enjoyment. If neglected and disliked, he becomes sad, introvert, pensive, and gloomy. His body and mind become a burden
to him.
It is during this period of life
that he becomes a voracious reader of obscene literature.
Punishing the adolescents for some
indecent habits, appetites, games, wanderings, companionships, and misbehaviour,
etc, does not improve the situation. If his new wants about dress, eating-cum- drinking
habits, and options of entertainment, selection of friends from both sexes are
violently snubbed or crushed, he becomes rebellious.
It is better to love than to hate
him. He needs to be understood magnanimously,
not criminally.
Overlook his new tendencies because
they are natural and moreover for a short period. He will himself try to give up what is undesirable
when he becomes a mature adult.
Sympathy rather than apathy and indifference
are needs of adolescents.
At the end, here are some famous
quotes:
*Adolescence
is a border between childhood and adulthood. It is a time of intense emotions,
growth, and shifting identity.
**The day
the child realizes that all adults are imperfect, he becomes an adolescent; the
day he forgives them, he becomes an adult; the day he forgives himself, he
becomes wise. ---Alden Nowlan (1933-1983),
Canadian poet, novelist, and playwright.
***Adolescence
is a new birth, for the higher and more completely human traits are now
born.---G. Stanley Hall (1844-1924), American psychologist and educator.
*******
G.R.Kanwal
7th August 2026
No comments:
Post a Comment