Reflective Response 3-Social Development

This week’s readings were on social development of adolescents.  I found much of the information in “Adolescent Development” extremely interesting and insightful. For instance, though adolescents establish greater independence by spending more time with their peers, they do not generally place less importance on their relationship with their parents.  So, despite that fact that it seems adolescents are pulling away, they still need and want closeness with their parents.  The paragraphs on parent-teen conflict were also especially enlightening.  It seems good advice for teachers and other professionals to remind parents that “minor conflict and bickering is normal” as I’m sure being the parent of an adolescent can be exhausting and overwhelming.  I would imagine that even small reassurances such as this would make a positive difference in the parent-child relationship, and that has to have a positive impact in other areas as well.  I would imagine that giving such reassurances to parents would be self-serving to teachers as well in that if the parent-child relationship is better, this could have a positive impact on the child’s studies.

The section on dating in adolescents seemed mostly common sense, but I appreciated that they addressed the importance of discussing the risks of sexual acts other than just sex.  It is rather amazing the misconceptions that teens (and sometimes adults) have about sex and sex acts.  I also appreciated the reminder to check state laws and institutional policies before jumping in with students to discuss these things.

The section on work also held some great information that I’ll take with me.  For instance, the negative effects of students working more than twenty hours a week are certainly something that I’ll remember. The section on faith institutions had good information but I just couldn’t see the relevance of how I could use that in the classroom. On the other hand, the media section gave me plenty to think about in regards to my classroom and giving advice to parents. 

The other three articles for the week were a bit of a mixed bag for me.  I guess gangs are a hot topic these days or since they first seriously developed in the 1800s.  I found some good information within them, but I also found them to be a bit redundant especially the “National Young Gang Survey Analysis” and the “National Gang Center Bulletin.”  Certainly, I think it’s great to understand a bit of gang related history and facts, but I guess that I just found it sad that at best gang problems are stagnant but some areas are getting worse.  It made a lot of sense that smaller populated areas have less gang related problems and high populations have worse gang problems. Otherwise, I’m afraid that I didn’t take much away from those two articles. However the “Practice Perspectives” article had some other good information.  All of the information on why young people join gangs and the warning signs are highlighted portions that I’ll be keeping with me as a teacher.