Young adolescents are a wondrous group of people, eager, enthusiastic, curious, adventurous, full of life, fresh, and refreshing, full of potential and promise. Their honesty is often disarming. They have a delightful sense of humour, albeit, at times a little surreal. It is an extraordinary time in the lives of these young people, hence, the need to celebrate this stage of endless discovery during which these young people come of age. Their capacities for thinking and reflecting are at times humbling. Their outward behaviour may belie the seriousness of their inner thoughts, but those who work closely with them know of their concern, for their friends and family, the poor, the environment and other life issues facing the planet.

There is a clear recognition that the Middle Years make up a distinct developmental group that needs to be considered. It is acknowledged that these young people have to make many adjustments as they move from childhood toward adulthood and confront physical, intellectual, emotional and social changes. They speculate a lot about what is going on. Some of them are afraid of it all, and self-confidence is especially vulnerable.

Every young person longs for an adult relationship built on genuine interest and mutual respect. Each young person is confronting perplexing issues and dealing with urgent questions, conflicting priorities, unsteady expectations, and a complex of apprehensions and aspirations. What we as adults have in common with them is that the primary challenge of growing up remains the same as it ever was; becoming the very best person one can be.

GES invites your school community to become involved in participating in a major asset building project called Developmental Assets for Young Adolescents. The project aims to support teachers, parents, leadership teams, parents and friends/citizens associations, and others coming together to learn more about adolescents and their assets. These might include:

External Assets

Support

Empowerment

Boundaries and expectations

Management of time

Internal Assets

Commitment to learning

Positive values

Social competencies

Self esteem

The aim is to measure the assets of students in your Middle School through action research and compiling a report for the school community. This would be followed by workshops dealing with the data found, discussing and introducing a range of strategies to help increase the number of assets, monitoring over time, and evaluating the outcomes.

If you think this can support your students to become the very best they can be then GES can help you. Invite GES to assist you and your school in establishing an adolescent assets approach and develop best practice teaching and learning in your school