After more than 40years of dealing with adolescents pretty much every day – as teacher, parent, boarding housemaster and headmaster –I believed I knew a thing or two about this frustrating and exhilarating phase of the human condition. I felt as though I had experienced most permutations of bewildered and bewildering behaviour, both from adolescents and from the adults around them. And then I met Dr. Herb Etkin.
Herb has been one of the top child and adolescent psychiatrists in the country: a person called upon to give expert witness in difficult legal cases involving young people. His professional and personal experience gave me a fresh perspective – he is a fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists and has raised three daughters, mostly on his own.
While my experience is of the generality of adolescence, particularly in the context of schools, he has a deep and extensive knowledge of profound issues and problems that seem to me to be relevant to all of us.
In our conversations, it became apparent that we both took a long view: the behaviour of adolescents has been seen as awkward and irritating by adults for thousands of years, at least in developed societies. In less mature societies, where life is a struggle, adolescence is very short-lived. It seems, therefore, that the period we call adolescence is a self-indulgent, irksome, inefficient time, to be got over as soon as possible.
Not so. It’s the most creative and influential period of our lives, and we should celebrate it. Yet parents and schools tend to slip into the conformity of managing it as a condition, rather than embracing it as a transformation.
This story is from the September 27, 2018 edition of TES.
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This story is from the September 27, 2018 edition of TES.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
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