Understanding the World of Adolescents

Context of Field Experience

The clouds are hovering above as the sun peaks through to spread warmth over the people. I go to Coogee Beach and make my way to the area with grass, barbecues, and benches. While some people are in their bathing suits just sitting around soaking up some sun, there are other people fully clothed and just standing around talking and drinking some beers. It is now around 3 o’clock and groups of children in various uniforms start making their way towards where I am located. The girls are mainly in plaid skirts and dresses of various colors such as blue, white, and green while the boys are in dark colored shorts and pants with polo tops sporting the school emblems on them. The older groups of people tend to stand and sit further away from one another then the kids do. While I can still hear the adults talking, the groups of children seem to be screaming as if they cannot hear each other despite the fact that they are sitting and standing within 2 ft. of each other.

Group Description and Explanation

Although there are several groups of people strung around the grassy area of the beach, one group in particular catches my eyes and my ears. There is a group of 4 children sitting in a circle perched up against a tree. There are 3 boys and 1 girl and they appear to be of Caucasian descent. They seem to be around the ages of 12-13. The thing about this particular group that caught my attention was what I first heard one of the boys say. He yelled out, “Stop being such a bitch.” You can say that I was a little more than surprised at this language. Since this was not something that was common when I was their age, I figured that I would focus a little more attention to what it was exactly that ...

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... friend group in which they can identify with and therefore, can express their crude thoughts without feeling judged. In reference to education, this experience shows that education is not just homework and math problems, it also deals with students and the relationships that they form whilst in school. If they form healthy relationships with their peers and/or teachers, they are going to be much more likely to excel in school, however, the opposite if they fall into the wrong crowd.

References

Andersen, G. (2001). The language of adolescents. Pragmatic markers and sociolinguistic variation a relevance-theoretic approach to the language of adolescents (pp. 5-11). Amsterdam: J.B. Pub. Co.

Lesko, N. (2012). Introduction: Troubling teenagers. In N. Lesko, Act your age: A cultural construction of adolescence (2nd Ed., pp. 1-15). New York, NY: Routledge.