Overview

The general public has lacked an adequate understanding of youth in the transition period between childhood and adolescence. As a result, young adolescents often have been "growing up forgotten." The English language contains no single word for this life stage, having only the terms infancy, childhood, adolescence, and adulthood to designate periods of life. Yet it is during the period of early adolescence, generally between the ages of 10 and 15, when young people leave childhood and move toward full adolescence that they make major decisions about their values, standards, attitudes, and personal beliefs. Many of these decisions direct their behavior throughout their lives.

Working together, we can highlight the need for strong educational partnerships among the school, parents, students, and community members so that every 10- to 15-year-old will have the opportunity to become all he or she can and should become.

The issues we are celebrating during the Month of the Young Adolescent deserve year-round attention and commitment if we are to accomplish what we must to ensure the well-being of all young adolescents. By celebrating this special month, we expect the following:

1. Parents and communities will become more knowledgeable about the needs of young adolescents and how they may appropriately respond to them.
2. There will be increased linkages developed between home and school with the common goal of implementing high quality education for every young adolescent.
3. There will be an increase in mutually supported activities between the school and community. A foundation of common understandings will be developed to enhance further community involvement in the education of young adolescents.
4. Parents, educators, and community members at-large will understand better the need to help young adolescents make wise decisions on a day-to-day basis as well as help them become healthy, productive, and ethical adult citizens.

This collaborative approach continues to be important to the success of this initiative because it will take all of us working together to make a real difference in the lives of 10- to 15-year-olds. We invite you to join with us in this important initiative. The young adolescents with whom we work and live on a daily basis deserve our best efforts if each is to have the chance to become all he or she can and should be. Together, we can make a difference ... to insure a bright future for all young adolescents.