Middle School Guidance: Problems in Comprehensiveness and Implementation

Abstract

The challenge facing middle schools today is to institute educational programs which will enable the transescent to encounter successfully the developmental and learning tasks faced during the transitional period between childhood and adolescence. Thornburg has stated that the transescent must (1) develop new modes of intellectual functioning, (2) develop moral concepts and values of his own, (3) develop peer friendships, (4) learn to cope with bodily changes, (5) learn new social-sex roles, and (6) take steps to become an inde pendent person.1 Obviously, these tasks present a tremen dous challenge to the transescent, one which must be accom plished to some degree before or while tackling the more complex learning tasks of adolescence. The need to assist the transescent in accomplishing these tasks clearly calls for guidance and counseling services. Yet there appears to be confusion as to what constitutes an appropriate guidance program.