Introduction
Adolescents standing as they do on the threshold of adult life, form an extremely important part of the society. Their importance is not so much based on their numbers as it is on the fact that their optimum development forms the basis for the wellbeing of society and its progress. Thus to understand them, to appreciate their needs, to provide them with proper avenues for learning, specially suited to their aptitudes so that they blossom to their full potential, becomes a primal task. Fortunately this point is being recognized and accepted by society and the adolescents are being studied from various angles. Academicians and educators are interested in devising special and individualised strategies to capture and hold the adolescent's energies, for school no longer occupies the centre stage in an adolescent's life. It has to face stiff competition from agencies like cinema, TV, neighbourhood gangs, music groups, multiplexes, malls and pub culture, resulting in undesirable stress in vulnerable teenagers. Social psychologists and behavioural scientists, are studying the unique and specific problems of adolescents in order to guide them to become productive members of the society. These scholars make us believe that there are no problem adolescents' but only solvable adolescent problems'. Again, there is this new breed of highly qualified professional market researchers who do extensive surveys on the in culture' of adolescents - their likes and dislikes in clothes, food, movies, music, beauty aids, shoes and reading material. The young are already recognised by the society as a body of affluent consumers and are the target for well directed advertisement blitz attributed to so called modelling effects by psychologists. THE ADOLESCENT YEARS Adolescence can be defined as the period of time during which individuals change from children to adults. It is the period which can be the most volatile and difficult stretch of life, a time that is laden with the possibility of disaster and yet holds the brightest promise for the future. It is a time of paradoxes and torturous ecstasy that caused Shakespeare to write "I would there were no age between sixteen and three and twenty". It revolves around an individual who is not-quite child, not-quite grown up. The landscape of these years is dotted with emotional peaks and valleys whose heights and depths may never be matched in later life. These obstacles confront youth of every culture. They are traversed most readily in traditional societies where centuries of experience have defined clear paths for transition from childhood to adult responsibility, but in modern technological cultures buffeted and bewildered by rapid change, the turmoil and confusion are acute. Rebellious and provocative behaviour, isolation and withdrawal, extreme lethargy and apathy, peculiar ways of dressing, a bizarre and unintelligible language, strange obsessions and fads all these characteristics which will be considered as signs of emotional illness in an adult, are now being accepted, albeit reluctantly and woefully by parents and teachers, as growing pains in teenagers. They are not causes for alarm.
About The Author
Dr. Amritha Murthy has been a brilliant rank-holding scholar and has been a distinguished educationist with a career encompassing a span of three and a half decades. She is a recipient of many awards and citations notable among them bring "Life Time Achievement Award" for her meritorious services in the field of Education, Guru Dronacharya Samman "Golden Jubilee of Independence Award" by Rajasthan Govt. in honour of services to education and many more. She has published 3 books and is a regular contributor to journals on psychology, education and Vedanta. She regularly conducts Seminars, Workshops and Lectures for Principals, Teachers, Parents and General Public at the request of reputed organization. Dr. Murthy is a practicing psychologist and does guidance and counselling to mentally and physically challenged students of concerned institutions. She is also actively involved with the "Alzeimers Society of India" for memory impaired (dementia) adults. She has versatile knowledge and experience in all fields of education school, college.
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