I hope that this book will help you to understand where that passion comes from. As you read I hope you ll be able to sense the high regard I have for both junior highers and the adults who work with them. I also hope you notice that I have a little different take on adolescence than many people who write books about today s young people. Because I am not a psychologist who spends a disproportionate amount of time around troubled teenagers, I don t consider troubled teenagers to be the norm. I believe that the vast majority of teenagers are great kids who are basically doing fine or at least could do fine with a little adult support and guidance along the way.
Many adults nowadays avoid teenagers because of the bad publicity they have been getting.
I believe a major reason teenagers today are involved in more negative behaviors than ever before is because they have been labeled as a uniquely rotten generation. In recent times, they have been called Baby Busters, Generation X-ers, Slackers, and all sorts of derogatory names that only discourage kids. It is my opinion that kids will live up or down to whatever expectations we have of them. If we stereotype kids and expect them to be bad, we shouldn t be surprised when they do bad things. But if we treat them with respect and give them the support they deserve, we may be surprised to see how much good they can do.