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Demystifying Adolescence

Waldorf educator returns to Anchorage to share philosophy with parents

[In April of 2003, Eugene Schwartz returned to Anchorage, Alaska, after a twelve-year hiatus. The first time he had visited, in the spring of 1991, he gave the first lecture on Waldorf education ever presented in Alaska, and helped provide the impetus for the initiative that was to develop into the Aurora Waldorf School of Alaska. At that time, a number of mothers attended with "babes in arms." In 2003, Eugene was invited back to meet those "babes," who were now sixth graders preparing to enter the Aurora School's first seventh grade class. In conjunction with the inauguration of this new stage in the life of the school, Eugene gave two public lectures on adolescence, was interviewed on public radio and TV, and appeared on the morning news on a CBS-affiliated station. This article appeared on the day of Eugene's arrival in Anchorage.]

DEBRA McKINNEY
Anchorage Daily News 

                                                                                                  
Eugene Schwartz has a collection of titles behind his name: parent, educator, author, international lecturer, Waldorf philosopher. Add to them intrepid explorer, as he delves into a world most adults don't understand, many don't want to and some are too afraid to even acknowledge -- the world of adolescence. The term "adolescence" only goes back to the year 1915, Schwartz said in a telephone interview from his home in New York. Coined by G. Stanley Hall, considered the father of American psychology, the word comes from the Latin and is used to identify a new phase in human life, Schwartz said.

"It's like a new country that's just been discovered. That's one of the reasons we're not sure quite how to deal with it."

On Wednesday and Thursday nights, Schwartz will lead a tour through this strange new land as he dispels some of the modern myths of adolescence and sheds light on all its delightful possibilities. His lectures, sponsored by Alaska Pacific University and the Aurora Waldorf School of Alaska, are geared toward parents, teachers and anyone involved with kids this age. He calls his talks "Adolescence: The Search for the Self," the title of one of his books. Donna Levesque, a teacher at Aurora Waldorf, described Schwartz as a dynamic speaker with a thought-provoking and liberating message.

"It's a very difficult time because they're leaving childhood and really wanting to be part of the adult world," she said. "They are able to think more critically and more abstractly, but their emotions still tend to be young."

The goal, she said, is to approach adolescence from a place of understanding rather than mystery, "so that we're meeting the children with as much respect as possible."

Adult fears of adolescents are not entirely unfounded. Schwartz considers them clairvoyant.

"They're not fully in themselves," as he explains it. "They're able to climb under the skin of adults to judge intentions, to see if you really mean it when you say, 'This homework needs to get done.' Adults make unspoken agreements with each other, that we accept each other's words. But teenagers don't do that. They want to know if what's behind those words is

real. They're far better able to judge the sincerity and genuineness of adults, of what's said to them. So it's uncomfortable to have them around."

Schwartz makes a convincing case there's much more to adolescents than meets the eye. He suggest adults set aside time every week, if not every day, to revisit their own adolescence, no matter how painful it may have been. Maybe especially if it was a painful time.

"For people to go back and remember, that brings about a much greater empathy and much greater degree of understanding. It is like a kind of inward time travel."

There's no shortage of ways to alienate these kids.

Among them is that tiresome line, "When I was your age ... ,

"then drawing an example of stellar behavior from your own "crazily distorted and beautifully enhanced heroic adolescence."

"It not just because your memory is so faulty," he said. "It's also the kids don't care that much about what you were like at their age; they care about what you're like now."

Another mistake is trying to be their friend. The relationship between adults and adolescents is building toward friendship, he said, but a true healthy friendship doesn't come until later, after the child becomes an adult.

"They're looking for a leader," Schwartz explained, "not a friend. They're still a passenger on the plane, and they want to know the pilot can get them from one place to the other."

He considers the friend approach to parenting "a cop-out, meaning 'I don't want to tell my child what to do anymore.' It's a terrible abdication of responsibility."

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