I raised three adolescents as a single father during the 80’s. Now I am raising two more adolescents. The two chapters didn’t change my mind due to my experience in raising adolescents. However, these chapters made me reflect more of what an adolescent really is.
I have observed adolescents for few years in high school and some of them have struggled with their personality traits they have no control over. Self-acceptance seemed to be one of the primary issues with adolescents. For others, they seemed so happy with their own personalities but with the prospect of making wrong choices, their happiness appeared so fragile. Sometimes, I feel that they need more than learning academic or career-related content. They needed opportunities to explore their potential in character making that can define who they are and how they want to live. Literature provides avenues for them to explore how characters, like themselves, make choices and create circumstances that they may have to live with. Adolescent literature, to me, is not just another academic course, but a safe place for adolescents to appreciate their incredible power in shaping their own lives.
RJ,
ReplyDeleteI impressed that you raised 3 teens as a single father. I did that too in NE as I was working on my PhD. There was never a dull moment, to be sure. I felt that my boys could have done much better with a stable male role model, which I could not provide. But we all made it . . . and I think that fragile is the operative word. Sometimes I felt like we wee walking on eggshells. And yes, books can be that safe haven.
Sue
I agree that adolescents definitely need opportunities to figure themselves out and see what they are capable of.
ReplyDeleteMy mom was essentially a single parent for 25 years, and then she was fully a single parent. It was quite a juggling act!