Adolescence is often thought of as a turbulent period of rebellion against authority. Young people have a distorted vision of themselves or the world.
It is not uncommon that they manage to create an insular world in which they can pretend to be utterly detached and uninvolved. They love vampire romance, gothic paraphernalia, and other weird things. Is this the normal state of affairs? What will force them into a moment of clarity?
What they do need is order and routine, which could affect virtually every aspect of their lives. By order, it does not mean we induce military discipline. What I do mean is organisation, which is best indicated indirectly by saying that order is the result of having a purpose. Personality has a lot to do with self-esteem.
During the old times, there was consistent discipline between home and school. Today, home life needs to be structured and the school day needs to be structured too. Parents are too permissive with their children.
With structured education settings, the younger generation can learn the direct connection between its actions and its abilities. Everything builds on everything else. However, critical pedagogy indicates that young people should be educated for social justice.
Only an organised setting allows young people to learn and develop their talents. Indeed, a child needs love and a lot of it. Resilience in young people is one of the critical attributes of a futuristic generation. One way of attaining resilience is enrolling them to join a choir, orchestra, or band. Music has been the signature of every generation as it defines each age group.
Resilience is the ability to overcome adversity. In music, young people will be acquainted with qualities like teamwork, empathy and grit – all components of resilience that can be developed through group music-making. With teamwork, it is obvious they will have to work together.
Here also, they will learn that they have to listen to each other, understand what is happening around them and be prepared to change how they play something (slow or fast, loud or soft) depending on how the group is performing, they will also need to value the contributions of other people, not just their own.
With empathy, young people will need to understand others in a group and share their feelings. In a choir or orchestra, music-making is a shared creative experience – that involves the whole body. And this is where empathy comes in.
Empathy, like teamwork, can be cumulative, growing over time through rehearsals and performances as players and teachers support one another.
Grit is equally vital for young people to develop a growth mindset, where they understand that effort makes them stronger, and learning is a long-term commitment. Grit also ensures pursuing a goal and sticking with it, even if it takes a lot of work or gets difficult.
Music is a tool for fostering resilience since it provokes activities in different parts of the brain at the same time. Listening and creating music triggers the pleasure/reward centre of the brain. Dopamine and serotonin are released, resulting in that “feel good” sensation, providing an incentive to keep engaging with music.
No one can guarantee that adolescents will grow into responsible and competent adults. Your influence on your young teen, however, is enormous. So it is critical to remain involved.
It’s when you are ready to throw up your hands in frustration that you most need to hang in. Learning about the world of early adolescents is an important step toward helping young people.
Every young person is unique, a fantastic combination of both genetic data and experiences that shape who they are. Even among identical twins, vast differences are often observed in behaviour, preference and way of thought.
This leads to the inevitable conclusion that every young person has something exceptional to share with the world. There is no one else exactly like them on the entire planet.
Procurement assistant officer at The Centre for the Study of Adolescence