NR The New American Middle School - Wiles & Bondi annotations

Understanding young people

"A growing body of knowledge shows that what happens to students between the ages of 10 and 14 determines not only their future success in school, but success in life as well." p 28

Wiles & Bondi use Piaget's "formal operations" theory to explain why young adolescents are so self conscious. Due to their newly acquired ability to think about many alternatives can cause adolescents to interpret situations much more complexly than they should be. They become much more aware of themselves and assume that everyone else is paying as much attention to them as they are...making them self conscious.

W&B provide a table for Piaget's "Stages of Development: Middle Years" p 30
ages 7-11: "Thinks out problems previously worked out. Logical thought as evidenced by genuine classification, learning to organize objects into a series; reversing operations (ex. arithmetic)."
ages 11-15: "Comprehends abstract concepts as evidenced by ability to form ideas and reason about the future, ability to handle contrary-to-fact propositions, and ability to develop and test hypotheses."
ages 11-12: substage A prep stage
ages 13-15+ : substage B

W&B work to explain some bad behaviors of adolescents by applying the "imaginary audience" idea. Ex. loud talking, strange clothes, vandalism in school. All of these things are done with audience reaction in mind.

Adolescents tend to believe they are special and will not get in trouble for their acts.

"Adolescent idealism" as it relates to hypocrisy: ability for adolescents to have high moral principles but not act on them=intellectual immaturity, not lack of morals. As youth mature they begin to see the need to work towards ideals. How is this useful knowledge for educators? Educators can better determine punishment (not too harsh, not too soft) if they are properly aware of why adolescents act up.

Charts for physical, social & emotional development provided. Transition and difference are emphasized.

I really enjoyed this poem: "Who Am I? / I have many things I want to say but --/ No one will listen./ I have many things I want to do but --/ No one will let me./ There are so many places I want to go but --/ No one will take me./ And the things I write are corrected but -- No one reads them./ Who am I? -- A Sixth Grader."

Because of adolescents' poor behavior many parents abdicate their duties and depend on schools. Youth need and desire a close family and need the security it brings. This is the worst time for parents to abandon their children.