Online Education Blog

Can you tell me the name of the teacher, who started teaching you for the first time? Well, most of you will stick to a common answer, which is the name of your mother and father. Yes, the parents are the first teacher, who teaches us how to talk, walk, eat, dress, behave and prepare ourselves to get into the perfect track of life, so that moving into the flow can be easier for us. Then, the teachers at school take the place of a mentor and then the professors in the colleges do it. However, the adolescence period in the life remains vital always, where the teachers play an important role. Looking at the situation, do you feel that it is developing a dependability among the students to rely upon the teachers always? Yes, it can be however, distance learning is a totally different field, which builds you as self dependent person at your ease.
Yes, the adolescence habit of depending upon the teachers for everything can go against the students, when it comes to stable yourself in the professional world, where the competition is too high. However, when you go for distance learning, it builds you as an efficient adult, who can take his personal and professional decisions in a better way. It helps them to stick to the best without depending upon anything else in the world.
Ok, lets draw a comparison of these two phases of life.
• When you are in your adolescence and your physical and mental condition is in its growing stage, a teacher is the right person to guide you from the nooks. It is really very important to have a mentor to make you aware of what is right and what is wrong for you at that stage of life.
However, when you go for distance learning, you are already at your mature stage of life. This is the time, when you must come out to stand by your own self to deal with the world.
• Adolescence period is the immature state of life, where without teacher you would not be

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Physical growth and development describe the physical as well as psychomotor changes in an individual. Physical development of children are grouped into different categories and the period of adolescence is of vital in shaping the child into a useful citizen of the society. The adolescence period of development begins with puberty.  Early adolescence is a time of rapid physical and intellectual development. Middle adolescence is a more stable period of adjustment to and integration of the behavior patterns of early adolescence. Later adolescence is marked by preparations for the responsibilities, choices and opportunities of adulthood. The major changes during adolescence are : -

i) Variability in onset and rate of puberty:

Directly related physical development/change that adolescents must face is the consciousness of sexual identity. This includes the expression of sexual needs and feelings and the acceptance or rejection of sex roles. Puberty is a series of physiological changes that make the organism capable of reproduction. Nearly every organ and system of the body is affected by these changes. The pre-puberty child and post puberty adolescents chages in outward appearance because of the changes in the stature and proportion and the development of primary and secondary sex characteristics.

Although the sequence of events at puberty is generally the same for each person, the timing and that of weight gain vary widely. The average girl typically begins pubertal changes around eleven years, one and a half to two years before the average boy. In each sex, however, the normal range of getting sexual maturity is approximately six years. Like the onset, the rate of change also varies widely. Some persons take only one and a half to two years to go through the pubertal changes to reach reproductive maturity, while others may require six years to pass through the same stage.

These differences mean that some individuals may mature before others of the same age who may have just entered puberty. The children make comparison among themselves. The tendency to hold maturity in high regard can be a problem for the less matured students. On the other hand, early maturers are also to experience temporary discomfort because they stand out from the less matured majority.

ii) Reactions to Puberty:

One of the most important challenges adolescents have to face is to adapt to the changes in their bodies. Coordination and physical activity must be adjusted rapidly as weight, height and skills change. The new developments in body must be integrated into the existing self-image. New habits have to be developed. As adolescents become more like adults in appearance, they are expected to behave more like adults regardless of their emotional, intellectual or social maturity.

The purpose of puberty is to make people able to reproduce. Thus the adolescent is faced with a new potential that includes increased interest in sexual activity, erotic fantasy and experimentation. Masturbation becomes a regular activity for many adolescents and some adolescents even indulge in sexual acts. The sexual activity necessitates facing the possibility of conflict with parents, pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases etc.

iii) Early and Late Maturing:

Researchers have long been interested in the possible differences between children who enter puberty early and those who enter it late. Peskin (1967) demonstrated that early maturers have a harder time at puberty. Youth who mature earlier experience more anxiety and have more temper tantrums, more conflict with their parents, and lower self-esteem at puberty than those who mature later. But by the time early maturers are in high schools, long post puberty and having accommodated its changes they are more at ease, popular, and mature than are late maturers. The late maturers are still experiencing pubertal changes.

If early maturity is an asset for teenage boys, it is a real liability for teenage girls. They develop breasts. They have fewer changes to discuss with peers the physical and emotional changes they are undergoing.

Peskin’s data suggest that the early maturer may need more help in understanding pubertal changes, while the late maturer may need more help coping with being relatively immature and less able to compete in situations where maturity and size are important.

One clear conclusion that we may draw from research on puberty is that this period is a relatively difficult one for for most children. neither they nor their peers nor adults find puberty easy to cope with. Moth self-esteem and peer-esteem decline temporarily during puberty.