The Dreaded Teen-age Years

Everyone fears the teenage years.  They fear that their young person will go down the wrong path.  They fear that they will destroy themselves.  

But making the right choices, to be good and stay out of trouble is not the real challenge of this age.  What is the real challenge of the teenage years is finding a place in the world.  It is when I cannot find my place in the world that I become apathetic, nihilistic, or simply lost.  

Besides neuroscience, Waldorf education and the work of Rudolf Steiner are my greatest influences.  Steiner points out that the crisis of the teenage years (usually later teens) can be completely avoided.  It is not a necessary phase of development, but rather the product of never having discovered their own gifts and abilities.  

Education that allows students to discover what they love to learn, what they are good at, and to practice the skills necessary to develop these abilities will naturally see themselves as capable and competent.  When a student is given the tools to envision their lives, the opportunity to create goals that they deem important, and the guidance and support to move those goals from idea to action, they will have no problem scaling those ideas up into a life-purpose.

So many of the great entrepreneurs were highschool or college drop-outs.  Why because conventional schooling is directed by the teacher.  The teacher sets the goals, writes the rubrics and gives out the grade.  The student is rarely involved in creating their own curriculum (with of course exceptions).

So when is the right time to start on this path?  The earlier the better.  It starts in Waldorf education with observing the student's interests and propensities.  Teachers in Waldorf maintain their relationship with the students from grade 1 to grade 8.  They don't need to give aptitude tests, or interest surveys.  These teachers know their students intimately.  

They then place before the students the tools they need to further develop their natural gifts and inclinations.  Teachers are brilliant when it comes to curriculum creation.  They can design an entire lesson for one student, without the class even realizing it.  When this is done systematically, each student gets the chance to shine, and can come to realize their own unique abilities without anyone ever having given a lick of praise.

Self-awareness and self-direction lead to meaningful choices and the ability to step into a bigger role in the world.  What if we taught this way?  What if at the end of highschool students felt excited to step into a bigger purpose?  We would have what Yong Zhao calls "out of basement readiness" for all our kids!

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