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adults who have a vested interest in their lives when making decisions, especially decisions with potentially long-term consequences.

 

Help them to critically Evaluate their feelings. Young people may need help in projecting out future consequences if they choose to act solely on their feelings. Many times their confusion can lead to viewing their world as being sideways, upside-down or crashing in around them. This happens when their own personal reality no longer seems to run parallel to what they have come to experience as objective reality (when the round hole of expectation does not seem to fit into the square peg of personal experience). It is easy for a confused and disgruntled teen to begin postulating their own personal/subjective reference points in an effort to make sense of the world around them.

 

Respond with caring and empathy.  It is sometimes easy for adults to forget the hardships of ‘fitting in’ as adolescents.  Be sure not to diminish their feelings as immature or childish.  To your students, the issues that involve their feelings are very real and very painful.  Remember, the severity of a hardship is always relative to the person experiencing it!

 

For more information about our critical thinking-based character education programs featuring the Rockin’ R.U.L.E.R., and more resources about today’s youth culture, visit our web site at www.straightroads.org.