How can I support adolescents in their quest to become independent young adults and productive citizens?
One thing that I can do to support adolescents in their journey to adulthood is to be open and honest while being supportive. I think many teachers and adults can either sugarcoat the future or they can be very harsh in their view of it. When I think back to growing up, I remember a lot of adults telling me that I shouldn’t want to be an adult and that when I do become one, I will want to be a child again. While all of that is fairly true, I think it can really discourage students about what their adulthood may look like. I want to make sure that with my students, I am honest about how hard the future can be and how scary it is, but I also want to give them support and encourage them to be excited because nothing good is easy.
Something else I can do to help students on their way to adulthood is to gradually give them more and more responsibility. The classroom I observed in Seymour on Tuesday was a great example of this, as well as the chat we had afterwards with Principal Mueller. With my students, I am going to aim at giving them more freedom and choice into what they would like to do and how they can get there. In my experience, teachers can get a little overbearing and have a plan for everything their students do. While that is necessary at some points and in some subjects in education, I think as students are getting closer to adulthood, it is beneficial to let them decide what they want to do and how they want to get there. This can help them create problem-solving skills and independence, which can be helpful for them going into adulthood. Me as the teacher can then guide them when they have questions and support them through their journey.
Another thing that I can do to help students prepare for adulthood is to embrace collaboration and community building. I think that this is a skill that most people don’t understand is still present within adulthood. There are many ways that this can be embraced within a music classroom, since most of what we do requires collaborating with other musicians to create one unified sound. Group projects is a simple way of getting this point across and giving students an opportunity to work collaboratively together. Another is enforcing the importance of chamber groups. The skills developed within working in a chamber ensemble are critical and, I find, are very helpful within adult situations as well.
After being involved in the string orchestra at SNC this year, I have come to realize that involving the community within your classroom can be very beneficial for students. Giving them the opportunity to communicate and get involved with others in the community reminds them that the world is bigger than just school. Giving students a sense of support within the community is very important during this big transition and it also gives them opportunities to interact with people other than their peers. Making these connections can possibly give them advantages in the future with many aspects of adulthood (career, housing, etc.). This can also give them a sense of giving back to their community and could lead to them being more involved in improving the world around them.
