Teens --- as Responsible People
I am often asked, “How do I handle my teenager?” Teens are often portrayed as children who are extremely difficult to handle, rarely support family events, and often work counter to school and home norms. They are often ridiculed on television sitcoms, news reports, and by a host of comedians from late night talk shows to daytime court hearing and call-in programs to media–psychologists.
Tufts University Professor, Richard Lerner, Ph.D. in his book, The Good Teen (New York: Crown Publisher, 2007), discusses aspect of growing through the teen years. He proposes positive development of personality characteristics through the five C’s: competence, confidence, connection, character and caring. When these five characteristics are properly nurtured, according to Learner, a person is able to make a contribution to
society, to school, to family, and to himself or herself.
Lerner believes that it is a mistake to embrace the stereotype of teens. He says, “We should think ---as a society and as parents –about how to promote healthy, positive, admirable, and productive behaviors in our young people…They‘re not problems to be fixed, but resources to be developed. They‘re are not immature or incomplete adults who need constant constraint and direction. But rather they are active partners in their own positive transition to adulthood”. (Ibid, page 10)
We are fortunate at CPS to have caring and understanding faculty and staff who reach out to students of all ages, including teenagers. Through our Character Counts Programs at both campuses, students are given the opportunity to discuss and embrace workable techniques that provide healthy interrelationships, to foster critical thinking and self-analysis, and to nurture support for one another. Of course, problems will pop up from time to time, but how these problems are handled create mature individuals who appreciate the value of team cooperation.
Our CPS mission is to “provide for the changing educational needs of 21st century students by promoting creativity, values, leadership, sportsmanship, and life skills, with an engaging and challenging academic, yet caring environment”. 1
We dedicate ourselves with the fervent hope that all students who graduate from CPS will have the proper tools, attitude, skills and resourcefulness to not only be successful in college and with future plans, but also to be content with the knowledge that they are living a life to its full richness of opportunities.
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1 CPS Mission Statement revised on May 5, 2009 by the Mission Statement Committee and approved
by the Board of Directors on August 22, 2009. |
