Ten Keys for Working with Adolescents

Working with adolescents is really just a part of every day living. After all young people make up a large, visible and usually very audible segment of our population. Even if you just go out to the store, go to the movies, go to church, go anywhere you are going to have to deal with adolescents just in passing. All of my working life, which now totals more than 30 years , it has been my privilege and many times my pleasure to work with adolescents. First as a camp director, then as a high school history teacher and finally for many years as a religious education director, I went to work each day knowing that I would be either teaching , directing or leading young people. It wasn't always easy and there were times when I really wondered why I took these jobs, but in the end I always came back to the real joy that generally came from working with adolescents. Over the years I have found that these ten keys make up a pretty good survival kit for anyone working with adolescents.

1, Remember your own adolescence. One of the most important keys for working with adolescents is definitely to think back to your own youth and remember what it was like. Bringing your own past behaviors to mind can often make some of what you see adolescents do today seem more understandable. The more you can connect their actions and words with your own from by gone days, the smoother the sailing will be for everyone. Adolescents are not monsters or mutants, they are young people in the process of growing up, just like you were . Their styles of dress, music, language and manners may not measure up to adult standards and they may seem like they have a subculture all their own. That's because they do, they need it to survive the in between feeling they have being no longer children and not yet adults. Remembering your own teen days will help to build some compassion and understanding into your attempts to work with adolescents.