Rethinking Adolescence

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.—Lao-tzu

Stories of a collective nature, stories that speak to humankind in general have the potential to work on deeper levels of our consciousness.—Carl Jung

We must be willing to get rid of the life we’ve planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.—Joseph Campbell

Students often enter their adolescent years with a rather overblown confidence. They finish elementary school with a sense that things operate according to a certain order, an established pattern. After five or six years of regular movement through the elementary program, they find themselves at the top of the pecking order. Physical changes heretofore have occurred at a fairly regular pace, allowing them to feel comfortable with their bodies. Metaphorically speaking, we could say that at this point that they have won the Trojan War Homer so majestically describes in his Iliad. Cocky and selfconfident, students who are moving into the adolescent years have no idea of the frightening odyssey that awaits them!