Caring for Young Adolescents in an Ethnically Divided, Violent, Poverty-Stricken Society

Abstract

Homicide is now the second, and sui cide is the third, leading cause of death among age ll-through-18 year-old American youth. Homicide is the leading cause in urban settings. AIDS is the fifth leading cause of death among the same group. In fact the United States has more children suffering from AIDS than the rest of the industrialized world combined (Wolff, Rutten, & Bayers, 1992). Changes in social, economic, and political life are threatening our children and challenging our democrat ic way of life. Middle level programs are being affected by changing realities in the lives of young adolescents. These challenges to established practices will require school communities to alter roles and functions to pro vide new services. This article discusses those realities which challenge middle level education. Local communi ties should reflect on the implications of these realities for their middle level programs. Planning ways to deal with these problems will take most of us through the looking glass beyond what most of us have dealt with in the past.