As junior highers develop new ways of thinking, they typically become very idealistic. Because they can now think in terms of possibilities, anything imaginable to early adolescents seem possible. And they tend to imagine things in terms of perfection. They have a hard time being realistic. They will offer ideal solutions to complex problems and perfect outcomes and alternatives to every situation. This characteristic of early adolescent thinking is very strong because their thought process lack ability to make the connection between what they think and what is reality.
Psychologist David Elkind calls this idealism pseudo-stupidity. It looks like stupidity when in fact it is not. It's just that the obvious or the realistic seems to elude them. For example, when a junior higher loses a sock or shoe or a book, he may look in the least obvious places. Instead of looking under his bed or the bottom of his locker,he will come up with mysterious conspiracy theories involving fellow students or even aliens from outer space. A junior higher may approach subject in school at a much too complex level and fail,not because the assignments are too difficult but because they are too simple.
When young adolescent make the shift to formal operational thinking,they need time to learn how to use their new thinking abilities. They don't always have them under control. The ability to weigh many different alternatives is not yet coupled with the ability to assign priorities and to decide which choice is most appropriate. Consequently, they often appear to be stupid when, in fact, they are too bright.
It is typically for junior highers to suspect complex, devious motives in the behavior of their friends, teachers, parents, brothers, and sisters for the simplest or most accidental occurrences. A simple discussion with a junior higher can become extremely complicated and sidetracked by the young adolescent's overeager intellectualization of the issue at the hand. This can result in miscommunication, misunderstanding, frustration,and, more often than not, hurt feelings.
Delia Ephron offers an example of this in her book Teenage Romance. What follows is a conversation between a mother and her teenage daughter. The situation: It's Saturday night and the girl's mother is insisting that she be home by midnight.
Oh,Mom, come on. Nobody gets home that early, nobody! Do you want me to be the only kid in the entire group that has to leave early? The only one can't stay out? Do you? Do you want me to ruin everybody else's time because I have to leave because my mom doesn't trust me while everyone else's mom does? Is that what you want? Is it? Great, just great. You're really getting impossible, you know that? You've changed, Mom, you have. You never listen, you never try to understand. You just give orders_ do this,do that .... You never let me do anything I want. Never. If you had your way,I'd be in jail. You know, you're running my life. Probably no one will ever invite me anywhere again as long as I live. I'll probably never have another date. I'll spend the rest of my life in my room.
It is helpful to remember that junior highers may sometimes think this way. They may say things that sound stupid and unreasonable when in fact they are being as reasonable as they can at this point in their development. As junior high workers, we should be as understanding and as patient as possible when confronted with the idealism of young adolescents. We can help them learn to be realistic and mature in their thinking by being realistic and mature in our responses.
The idealistic nature of junior high thinking can also be one of the endearing qualities of early adolescence. Sometimes their idealism translates into the kind of enthusiasm that is hard to find with other age groups, especially adults. For example, when you tell junior highers that God wants to use them to change the world, they get excited. They believe it! They see all kinds of possibilities and are ready to go change the world. Our challenge is to help channel some of that idealism into real opportunities for service so they don't become cynical and discouraged.
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